JULIET’S THIRTEEN

Finishing my positive character traits inventory helped me to see that I am a worthy person, who is capable of being loving, patient, humble, giving, and serene. Doing this inventory reminds me not only to practice these positive behaviors and principles but also that I can always become more loving, patient, humble, and giving.

Recently I was listening to one of my bible study tapes and the scripture being studied was 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, the famous love chapter. As I listened to this well-known passage, I thought to myself,What would it be like if I substituted myself for the word love? That might help me remember t0 be more loving, patient, humble, giving, and serene.

So I did that. Here’s how it turned out.

1If Juliet speaks in the tongues of men or of angels, but does not have love, she is only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If she has the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if she has a faith that can move mountains, but does not have love, she is nothing. 3If she gives all she possesses to the poor and gives over her body to hardship that she may boast, but does not have love, she gains nothing.

4Juliet is patient, Juliet is kind. She does not envy, she does not boast, she is not proud. 5She does not dishonor others. She is not self-seeking, she is not easily angered, she keeps no record of wrongs. 6Juliet does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7She always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Juliet never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When Juliet was a child, she talked like a child, she thought like a child, she reasoned like a child. When she became a woman, she put the ways of childhood behind her. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.^[1]

^[1]Adapted from First Corinthians, Chapter 13.