February is still the month of LOVE! True to form, contributor Lauren Fletcher uses humor and biblical wisdom to encourage us in loving others and loving them well. Get ready to laugh while you learn more about love!

Recently, the salon I use underwent a renovation, which included a new row of chairs in front of the shampoo bowls.  As I sat down in one of the new chairs, I flipped the handle on the side of the chair to get into a reclining position.

My chair didn’t move, but I noticed the legs of the older lady to my right go flying into the air. I had flipped HER into a reclining position mid shampoo!

Thankfully, she did not drown, she was able to get up and walk away from the bowl after her shampoo, and was amazingly very gracious to me.  She even laughed as if she thought it was funny.

She allowed me to be imperfect!

Horrified that I had flipped a lady into a reclining position when she least expected it, I tried to figure out why it had happened. I realize that doing crazy things and then being seriously analytical about it doesn’t seem like two traits that would be in the same person, but they are both there.

I noticed the chairs were very close together and that the handles were located on the left sides of each chair.  Because I am right handed, I assumed the handle to my chair was on the right side.

Well, it wasn’t. So, I said to the lady shampooing my hair, “Why would people make chairs with a handle on the left side?” Her reply – “For left handed people?”

And then, I realized how entitled I must seem expecting the whole world and everything in it to accommodate right handed people.

So, here is my astounding conclusion:

Everyone in the world is not alike.

However,  I (and others) often approach life with this perception. The result?

Sometimes we “flip people out”.

Sometimes people “flip us out.”

Florence Littauer has written several excellent books that explain the four basic temperaments that people have.  Gary Chapman has written some outstanding books on the five love languages through which people feel loved.

When you consider that every person is a different combination of temperaments, love languages, and life history, is it surprising that we sometimes shake up people’s world and they ours?

We may mean well, but when we approach life from our temperament, try to love others with our love language, and assume they have had the same life experiences we have known, it often doesn’t work.

Loving others well is at the center of Christianity.

But it requires tremendous effort and understanding.  1 John 3 highlights the importance of loving others well.

“And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” 1 John 3:22-23 NKJV

Jesus gave His life for us and “this is His commandment.” He asks us to believe on His name and love one another.

According to 1 Corinthians 13, we can have enough faith to move a mountain, but if we don’t have love, we are nothing.  We can give away every thing we have to feed the poor, but if we don’t have love, it doesn’t profit us.

Sometimes, no matter what we do, living peaceably with others seems impossible. But from our end——–we must do our part.

“If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”  Romans 12:18 NKJV

In addition to a new cut and some color, I left the salon that day with a desire to be more gracious and understanding when the actions of others surprise and affect me.  The lady I flipped mid-shampoo, whose name I do not know, was such a beautiful example to me of how love reacts.  I wonder if she is a Christian.  Love is such a powerful communicator!

This prayer of Paul’s for the people in Philippi says it best:

“I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.” Philippians 1:9-10 NLT

May our love overflow and may we keep on growing in knowledge and understanding and live pure, blameless lives until Christ returns.

Your DoAhead Friend,

Lauren