Cultivating a Culture of Love for God

Love is a powerful feeling that pushes you to love someone and want good things for them.

The goal of love is to perfectly unite human beings. The types of love that exist are passionate love (eros) reciprocal love (agape) and filial love (fileo) or deep love.

True love is not an emotional dependence; on the contrary, it is a real freedom in which you can be who you truly are and accept others with their qualities and flaws. Hence the need to promote a culture of love for God and for our neighbor. Indeed, we believe that it is essential for the spiritual health of believers and us as Christian teachers that we know how to cultivate and protect love.

To cultivate God’s presence and show Him that you love Him, you must love your neighbor, for no one can claim that he loves God if he hates his neighbor. Love for your neighbor is manifested by thinking of and accepting him or her, forgiving, sharing, caring, knowing how to clear the air or telling them things clearly but in love, seeking peace with all (of course, this list is not exhaustive).

Love of neighbor is manifested by the consideration and acceptance of the other. Take the case of Minos, a marginalized student, almost abandoned to his sad fate because of his disability. Once he arrived at the New Horizon school in Gemena, Sud-Ubangi, he found transformed teachers who understood God's beliefs about children. They surrounded him with love and made him understand that God loves him as he is. Other students also testified to him of their love. Minos has now flourished; he learns like everyone else. This is how the teachers and students who have internalized the values of love that were communicated to them were able to value and see God transform the life of Minos.

As for love for God, it demands that all our service be motivated by love (1 John 4:7) in:

• setting ourselves apart for God, that is to say knowing how to withdraw, stepping away from all noise and all distraction and having only one focus: God (Matthew 6:6);
• cultivating the atmosphere of praise (listening to songs to the glory of God) (Psalm 22:4);
• reading the Word of God (Psalm 119:11 says “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you”[1])
• fearing His name (Psalm 34:7) and praying (Psalm 145:18), knowing that the Lord is near all who call on Him with sincerity.

We must serve as models of love for God to all those who surround us and share space with us, to the children that God has put in our charge for their growth. In this way, we will be able to win many through our actions, and maybe even without words.

Winnie Mukena Muleka
Winnie works as a teacher at FATEB Kinshasa Academy. She has taught at the elementary, middle and final levels of primary education and is currently a secondary school basic education teacher and a training assistant for the Sparrow Project.