5 Minutes a day / 5 Days a week

with God

1 Cor 13:4-7

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

In our daily devotional series on love, for our forth thing we will look at concerning love, like yesterday's, is also something that love does not do.

love does not parade itself

So what does this mean to parade itself ?
Another word, which is used in the NLT, is boastful .

When you are parading yourself or someone you love around, you are causing others to be jealous and envious of what you have, and as we learned yesterday love does not envy

I have a great wife who takes awesome care of our children. She always has the house clean and neat. She always takes care of herself making sure she is healthy and clean.
She is beautiful and pretty smart at the same time.
These are just a few things about my wife that I see and don't mind telling others.
So am I parading her around or being boastful?
No, because this is something you don't read here all the time. But if every time you came here and read these devotionals and all you read about was the great wife I had, that would be boasting. If you think about it, you would envy me for have such a great wife, but soon start to get sick about hearing about her all the time.

When I got a promotion at work, my wife gave a party for me and invited some of our friends, because she was pleased with her husband and what a hard worker he is. But afterwards she didn't go around telling the same people over and over that I got a promotion. That would be boasting.

Here is an example in the bible on how to tell others about someone you love.

Job 1:8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"

So was God boasting about Job?
No, because Job is not all God talks about in heaven, and since God is perfect and loves perfectly He is showing us that it's ok to tell others about someone you love.
Just don't over do it, because that wouldn't be love, it would be irritating.

E-Mail Home Page