Don't lose your grip on Love ...

---

Don't lose your grip on Love and Loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart. Earn a reputation for living well in God's eyes and the eyes of the people. -Proverbs 3:3-4

---

Love and loyalty (or faithfulness) are the hallmarks of healthy relationships - it is really hard to have one without the other. Just consider these words that the apostle uses when he defines love for the Corinthians: patient and kind; not envious, boastful, arrogant, irritable, resentful or rude. Given that it is no wonder that loyalty cannot be separated from from love. We must hold these values tightly because they define what it means to be a son or daughter of God.

The word "reputation" seems to have both a bright and dark side. In a negative way people sometimes embrace a prideful persona where their reputation is wrapped up in what they do or how they do it. In our scripture today Solomon speaks to how love and loyalty presents a different kind of reputation. He tells us that this sort of reputation is earned by living well. And when we live a life of love and loyalty we live well in the eyes of God and those around us.

Come Holy Spirit. Fill me today that I might live well in your eyes and the eyes of those around me.

---