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 to be more loving, patient, humble, giving, and serene.

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

1 If 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. 2 If 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. 3 If 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.

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

8 Juliet 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. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When 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. 12 For 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.

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

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