CHECK YOUR LOVE LEVEL Dear Friends, Friends of ours wrote about how they were seeking to work through some difficult relational issues with people close to them.  In my commendation of how well I felt they were modeling Christ, I offered a suggestion of my action and attitude checklist, which I use for self- evaluations, warning, and accountability.  It may appear simplistic, but most checklists are simply lists of warning signs such as a pilot would use before take-off or I used as a machine gunner before going into combat.  The point is that the checklist is not the solution for our lives - Jesus is - but it serves as a reminder, much like the warning light on the dashboard of our car. Taking the principles of I Corinthians 13, I use this checklist to examine my thoughts, words and intentions as follows: ____1. Am I forsaking patience with others with the justification that I am busy or       important? ____2. Am I sacrificing kindness for my productivity? ____3. Am I rejoicing with what is right or giving in to what is coarse, crude, or false? ____4. Am I willing to bear with people and circumstances or do I stand on my rights? ____5. Am I willing to believe the best in people and circumstances or am I sarcastic and       suspicious? ____6. Am I willing to trust and have hope in the urgencies, curve balls, surprises,       accusations, hurts, and painful circumstances that my sovereign Father allows in my       life or do I get angry when things don' t go my way? ____7. Am I willing to endure all things including persecutions, being wrongfully blamed,       bearing the consequences of sin (mine and others), or do I become moody, self-       pitying, or bitter? ____8. Am I believing that love never fails, or do I rely on my own ingenuity, manipulation       or position? ____9. Am I careful not to be jealous when others succeed or are blessed by God? ____10. Am I careful not to brag even when I feel that what I am doing, saying or thinking is             important to others and God? ____11. Am I careful not to be arrogant even when I feel justified by another's actions or             circumstances? ____12. Am I careful not to act unbecomingly or do I give in to what causes other to laugh       because, after all, "everyone is doing it"? ____13. Am I careful not to seek my own even when I'm sure I am the most deserving? ____14. Am I careful not to be easily provoked even when I am tired, sick, overwhelmed,             or running on empty? ____15. Am I careful not to take into account a wrong suffered even when it hurts so badly       that perhaps, in my mind, the offense was totally uncalled for, from someone who       remains uncaring and unrepentant? ____16. Am I careful not to rejoice in unrighteousness even when it means walking out of a       party, a movie, a conversation, or even in giving up something I really want or want       to do? The only way to love as Christ loved is to have Him as the absolute focus and center of my thoughts, words, and deeds. Because He Lives, Phil