“He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and,’Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27

How do you LOVE what you can not see? Easy. You can see Him. God takes the ordinary things of this world and makes them holy. He works through material things to show Himself to the world and to bring people back to Himself. Not only that, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

So how do we love God first? First I have to suggest, get to know Him. Find out who He Is! He is not your buddy. Hes not a Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Home Boy, Community Organizer etc. He is God, “I am who am”! Second, we reject, or place our wants last. We place His “Wants” first. Therefor our “Needs” become clearer. Does God want us to do what makes us happy? Or does God want us to do what makes Him happy? He wants us to do what makes Him happy first and by doing so, we become happy by living in freedom from sin. There is no greater happiness or peace! We become obedient to Him and not to self. We in time, walk away from the sins that blinded us into “Thinking” we were in the right for committing them or “Justifying” our sins for our own benefit. Sins then appear before they can be committed and thus the trap can not catch us and we learn to avoid them.

As for loving our neighbor? In Everything you do, do it for God. When you hug your children, act as if you are hugging God. When you speak to others, act as if you are speaking to God. When you are cooking a meal, act as if you are cooking for God. When you are driving to work, act as if every person driving along side of you is God. And when they “Get on your nerves”? KNOW this to be a test from God. Treat them with love and kindness ANYWAY. LOVE them anyway! Toss away the temptation to treat them, ALL of them in any unkind way.

““The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:40

Don’t worship them! Worship God and the rest will fall into place. Know they are sinners just as we all are, but they have a soul created by God, in His image.

By doing this, it will build up strength to apply MORE to the love you have for God. Or, build the love you have for him. Just like exercise for the body takes time for results, so do spiritual exorcises and once you stop, it all goes back to where you were before. It builds the souls Fortitude: mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation courageously. Grow in humility by destroying all worthless pride.

Practice the beatitudes, then perfect them.

“The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray His charity.” —Catechism of the Catholic Church, (CCC) 1717

The Beatitudes “are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulation.” —CCC, 1717

“The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts.” —CCC, 1719