I am so excited because this is one of my favorite times of the year. I am not speaking of Valentine’s Day in this instance. I am thrilled that it is time for the NBA’s annual all-star weekend. To have it take place in NY during fashion week adds to the excitement. Although I won’t be in the midst of the action, it will be great watching the events on television and online. February may be the shortest month of the year, but it is always action-packed!

Besides that, it is day 7 of the 13 days of love celebration! If this is your first time visiting, please be sure to read days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. It is truly impossible to experience love without any of these components. So, after the celebration ends, keep a tab on this event by bookmarking the tag 13 days of Love (located on the right side of your screen). Each time you revisit the associated posts, you will gain a refreshing insight. Certainly, implementing the counsel from this event will have a positive impact in all of your relationships.

Love is not divisive. As I’ve expressed in previous posts, to love a person you have to know that person. Learning a person’s true identity does not require you to agree with all of his or her ideas or actions. In many cases, the closer you get to a person, the more you notice differences. That’s where unity comes in. Unity requires that in spite of our dissimilarities, we work to achieve a common goal. For spouses, the goal may be to sustain the marriage covenant and to raise children. For siblings, the goal may be to maintain a bond despite age and distance. For friends, the goal may be to safeguard the relationship despite opposing viewpoints and various transitions.

We live in a world where many people believe that to achieve unity we must all be the same. Yet, that is the furthest thing from the truth. Unity acknowledges the fact that a body possesses varying members. Furthermore, each member serves a unique and necessary purpose to the existence and longevity of the body. For example, the nose and the mouth, together, are necessary for the enjoyment of food. One without the other would severely impact your pleasure of eating. Therefore, we love both the nose and the mouth. We do not say one member is more valuable than the other. As you can see, unity is vital to sustain love.

Love,

CompassionateLee

1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.