1 Corinthians 13*

If I communicate in witicisms and with impeccable grammar, but have not the love to speak respectfully to my family, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I know exactly what my child wants, and understand all her moods and can read her non-verbals, and if I have all faith, so as to provide for her every need, but have not the love that listens to her soul, I am nothing. If I give away all my free time and give up my hobbies, and if I deliver up my body to stretch marks and spit up, but have not love and so complain every step of the way, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind in the tempest of an unreasonable baby; love does not envy another mom's stage of life or boast about a clean house; it is not arrogant in expectations or rude in private. It does not insist on its own way when it is clearly the "right" way; it is not irritable with the fourth wake-up call of the night or resentful of a husband who needs to sleep before going to work; it does not rejoice in self-pity, but rejoices with the truth of God's bigger picture. Love bears the weight of a child's utter dependence, believes the best when there is no reason to, keeps hope for a child's future when the world goes crazy, endures when the unendurable days come around.

Love never ends. As for cheerios on the floor, they will pass away; as for diapers, they will cease; as for baby talk, it will pass away. For we know what we're doing in part and we clean bits of the house in part, but when adulthood comes to our offspring, the scattered toys will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a woman, I gave up childish ways, but now I need to forbear with my daughter's childish ways. For now we see God's plan dimly, but then as clearly as face to face. Now I know in part what God has done for me in His love; then I shall know fully of His sacrifice and His provision, even as I have been fully known by Him during every moment of my life.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

*Mom Standard Version, as adapted from the English Standard Version