Love like a Partridge

I received in my email today, a story about how two men were walking in a wood where recently a forest fire had ravaged.  They encountered a crusted torched partridge sitting on the ground, her body now only ash.  The man knocked it over with a stick and out scrambled her little chicks, unharmed.  The partridge could have flown to safety but chose instead to die for her chicks.

And then in today's email came the verse of the day (I love how God always gives me a relevant verse to what I'm going through or thinking about. )  Here is the verse.

Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.  Eph 5:2

Note the sacrificial nature of love.  Love that does not cost us something is not love.  In conversation, do we love others?  We may be right in an argument or discussion (or think we are right)...but is the loving thing to prove ourselves to be right or is it to consider the feelings of the person with whom we are talking?  We sometimes need to sacrifice our pride and our belief that we have all the facts for the love of another.  And that is a small sacrifice compared to the partridge...compared to Jesus.

When we sacrifice ourselves in such a  manner this pleases God just like the sweet fragrance of perfume. And when we push ourselves and our agenda at the expense of others....I believe that we are a stench in the nostrils of God--or a clanging cymbal in his ears.  ( If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 1 Cor. 13:1,2 )   I don't know about you, but I want to be perfume or a pleasant sound and to bring God pleasure