The purpose of being a person of faith is ultimately about “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14).

Christ was asked, “Which of the commandments is greatest?” He responded, ““Love God and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:34-40).

So, how do we live our lives as our faith calls us to? Several steps – if applied – move us forward in love (kudos for these steps you already put into practice!):

• Love God. God is love. We spend time with the people we love; thus, loving God requires spending time with God in prayer (note: prayer isn’t just a one-way conversation of us talking to God. Prayer is a relationship. Relationships go both ways – in addition to communicating to God, allow God to be present in prayer, be attentive to God’s loving presence.). Twenty minutes in daily prayer is feasible. Regular prayer transforms us, increases both our faith and how our faith unfolds in our lives!
• Loving God requires loving God’s children. This is both a spiritual truth and applies our faith toward the greater social good (this spiritual truth is spoken of in 1 John 4:20). Everyone is a child of God – no exceptions. Even the people we don’t like are beloved children of God (that’s hard!). It can be easy to cultivate a loving relationship with God (the “faith is exclusively a relationship between me and God” syndrome) – it’s harder to apply our faith to learning to love any people we’d rather avoid. However, learning to love people we’d rather avoid (or even hate!) forces us to grow into becoming better people – faith in action! The world becomes a better place as a result.
• Apply generosity of spirit throughout each day. As the saying goes, “everyone loves a cheerful giver.” Through this principle, we become better people and contribute positively to our communities and the individuals within our communities.
• Go the extra mile to be a caring person when interacting with people. Be the one to help build community, to be a force for good. Result: people feel cared for!
• Get involved in relieving the needs in your community. Volunteer where needed, donate to charity. We can all be involved in making our community a better place.
• Make time for people when they need you. Be present when someone is vulnerable. This is sometimes easy when it’s someone we care about it, when the topic-at-hand is an easy one, and we can easily make time. Sometimes, though, being present when someone feels vulnerable is hard. Work at it, people need you. It’s a good, important way to support people.
• Be the one to forgive, even when it’s hard. This is the right thing to do, it heals relationships. Sometimes, we need to be the bigger person (even when we don’t want to!).
• Find something good in everyone. Nearly everyone – even the people who are difficult – have positive traits. Compliment people’s strengths.
• In marriages, apply the “60/40 rule.” If both spouses spend 60% of their marital effort thinking about meeting the other spouse’s needs (rather than focusing on “what do I want out of this marriage”), the marriage will go well. A great strategy!
• Build people up. Family, friends, co-workers.
• Give children and pets – everyone who is vulnerable (sick folks, marginalized individuals, etc. – your undivided attention. When we are good to people who can’t do anything for us – we’re living as well as we ought to.
• Commit random acts of kindness. The more, the better.
• Cultivate empathy.
• Allow God to clean up your character flaws. Often time, our flaws get reduced better with God’s help. Our imperfections don’t help anybody!

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages (and a member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog, please share it with them (thank you!). Also, your support ($$) to help sustain this blog is welcome.