Daily Prayer: The Greatest of These Is Love
Daily Prayer: The Greatest of These Is Love
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
— 1 Corinthians 13:13
My husband left his coffee mug on the counter this morning — right next to the sink, not in it. Which, after all these years, I have decided is simply his signature move. A little flag that says, I was here, I was caffeinated, I love you.
I rinsed it out and put it in the dishwasher without a second thought. And then I stood there for a moment, a little surprised at myself.
That used to bother me. Now it just feels like home.
Three Things That Last
I've been sitting with 1 Corinthians 13:13 lately — not the grand, wedding-ceremony version of it, but the plain, everyday sentence it actually is.
Faith, hope, and love. These three remain.
I think what strikes me most is that word: remain. Not "these three are impressive." Not "these three will win you awards." They remain. They stay. They're still standing after everything else has settled.
That feels true to me. Not because I've studied theology (I haven't, really), but because I've lived long enough to watch a lot of things fall away — and those three are always still there in the morning.
The One That Wins
And then Paul just says it, plainly: love is the greatest.
Not the most exciting. Not the most dramatic. The greatest.
I think I used to picture love as the big gestures — the surprises, the speeches, the moments worth photographing. And those are real. But the love I actually live in looks more like rinsing out a coffee mug. Texting my adult daughter a meme she'll find funny. Staying up a little later than I wanted to because my husband needed to talk through something.
It's not glamorous. But it's also not small. Not really.
Faith and Hope Are Doing Their Part Too
I don't want to skip past faith and hope too fast, because they matter. Faith is what gets me out of bed on the mornings when I don't quite feel like it. Hope is what keeps me believing that things I can't see yet are still being worked out.
But love is the one that actually touches people. It's the one they feel.
I notice this at work, at home, in the small exchanges that make up an ordinary day. A patient tone. A genuine compliment. Paying attention when someone is talking instead of just waiting for my turn. These are love in action, and they cost almost nothing — except the decision to actually do them.
What I'm Learning (Slowly)
I think I spent a lot of years believing love was something I'd feel first and then do. Like I'd be flooded with warmth and then act accordingly.
But it works the other way around more often than not. I do the small thing — I rinse the mug, I send the text, I stay up — and the warmth follows. Or sometimes it doesn't follow at all, and I just did a kind thing, and that's enough.
Love is less of a feeling I'm waiting on and more of a practice I'm in the middle of. Every single day.
I like that. It makes me feel like I'm actually doing something real, even when nothing about the day looks particularly meaningful from the outside.
A Prayer for Today
God, thank You for making love the point of the whole thing. I find that genuinely comforting, because love is something I can actually practice today — right here, in my regular life, with the people already in it.
Help me not to overthink it. Help me to just do it — the mug, the text, the extra minute of attention I didn't plan on giving. Let that be enough. Let that be real.
And on the days when I'm running low and the love feels hard to find — remind me it doesn't start with me anyway. It starts with You, and I'm just passing it along.
That's a much lighter thing to carry. Amen.
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