Our focus at the last service was learning all about LOVE – what it is, why it is important.

We learned that that Jesus loves us all very much……in fact his love for us is so high we can’t get over it, so low we can’t get under it and so wide we can’t get round it - and we all energetically expressed this through singing the popular song ‘Jesus love is very wonderful’ with supporting actions (something we do every Funday@4).

We explored that fact that it’s easy for us to love the people we know and like – but what if it’s someone we don’t like? Someone who has been mean to us or someone we don’t even know? Should we love them? Of course we should! We learned that just as God loves everyone he also wants us to love everyone too.

In our bible passage Luke 10:11 Jesus said Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your mind and Love your neighbour as yourself. And by ‘neighbour’ he means EVERYONE! We should love everyone as ourselves. Neighbours are not just the people who live near us or that are in our circle of friends and family or attend church with us or even just those who believe in God. Gods love is for everyone. It is a love with no strings attached….

Here are 5 simple ways to show God’s love to others, we do it through…

1. Listening: Listen to others, ask questions – allow people to talk – people feel valued and loved when they are heard and understood.

2. Generosity: Can you think of a time when someone showed you such generosity that you still think ‘WOW, I can’t believe they did that for me’? And generosity doesn’t always need to be money, it can be being generous with your time, your kind words, your talents. Someone that is there for you in difficult times makes you feel loved. When we love someone we give go them.

3. Encouraging: helping people lighten their burdens with words of encouragement. The word encourage means to ‘Make Strong’ – when we encourage each other we are making our spirits strong. We strengthen hope, faith and resolve to keep going.

4. Acts of kindness: showing kindness means thinking about the other person more than you think about yourself. What can you do to make someone elses life better? It doesn’t have to be huge – but should be thoughtful. Practice being others-focused. Maybe give someone your last sweetie?

5. Praying: Pray for others and their needs because God hears our prayers – its one of the easiest ways to show love.

We also watch a short film called ‘The Good Samaritan’ where Jesus tells us a parable about what it means to love your neighbour. We rounded off the service by decorating hearts with lots of bright colours – some of which we have left in the church to show others what we’ve been up to and learning and to remind them that Jesus loves them too…..