God promises to direct the steps of His own. We are blessed by Him to be leaders and have extra so we can use these influential tools to share the Gospel of God’s love with as many others as possible! I cling to God’s promises and speak them aloud for my family.

Psalm 37:

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says that having love for others is more important than than any other godly qualities.

1 Corinthians 13:

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages^[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.^[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

The book of Esther in the Old Testament has always intrigued me. When I was in my twenties I remember reading and then stopping to admire the beauty that God gave Queen Esther. I dreamed of being her and admired by all.

Esther begins by telling of an extravagant party King Xerxes had to show all his power and wealth. It lasted 180 days which is around half of a year!

Esther 1:

1 These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia.² At that time Xerxes ruled his empire from his royal throne at the fortress of Susa. ³ In the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. He invited all the military officers of Persia and Media as well as the princes and nobles of the provinces. ⁴ The celebration lasted 180 days—a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty.

⁵ When it was all over, the king gave a banquet for all the people, from the greatest to the least, who were in the fortress of Susa. It lasted for seven days and was held in the courtyard of the palace garden. ⁶ The courtyard was beautifully decorated with white cotton curtains and blue hangings, which were fastened with white linen cords and purple ribbons to silver rings embedded in marble pillars. Gold and silver couches stood on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and other costly stones.

⁷ Drinks were served in gold goblets of many designs, and there was an abundance of royal wine, reflecting the king’s generosity. ⁸ By edict of the king, no limits were placed on the drinking, for the king had instructed all his palace officials to serve each man as much as he wanted.

David wrote many of the Psalms. He wrote Psalm 34 after he pretended to be insane in front of the ‘proclaimed’ King Abimelech. It is a Hebrew acrostic poem.

Psalm 34:

Glorify God for His amazing creations. He breathed words and it began to exist.

Psalm 33:

God is good to those who fear Him.

Psalm 39:

God paid a high price for humanity. It was His only son, Jesus.

1 Corinthians 6:

¹⁹ Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, ²⁰ for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

God hears us in our anguish. He is the immovable rock.

Psalm 31:

O Lord, I have come to you for protection;
    don’t let me be disgraced.
    Save me, for you do what is right.
² Turn your ear to listen to me;
    rescue me quickly.
Be my rock of protection,
    a fortress where I will be safe.
³ You are my rock and my fortress.
    For the honor of your name, lead me out of this danger.
⁴ Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me,
    for I find protection in you alone.
⁵ I entrust my spirit into your hand.
    Rescue me, Lord, for you are a faithful God.

Paul was a spiritual father to the people who went to the Corinthian church and also many other Christians.

1 Corinthians 4:

¹⁴ I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children. ¹⁵ For even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father. For I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you. ¹⁶ So I urge you to imitate me.

¹⁷ That’s why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the churches wherever I go.

¹⁸ Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again. ¹⁹ But I will come—and soon—if the Lord lets me, and then I’ll find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really have God’s power. ²⁰ For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.

The wisdom of humans is so far below the wisdom of God.

1 Corinthians 3:

¹⁸ Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,

²⁰ And again,