Love & Its Attributes

In the summer of 2021, I had a special request for books from a woman who had come to my library for a number of years while her daughters were younger. She works at a nearby church and was preparing a summer curriculum for the children through Zoom. It was to be based on 1  Corinthians 13. The teachers were going to read books aloud and then have the kids tell their own stories about whatever the subject was for that particular Sunday. Of course I said yes.

As I read over the passage, I was caught by the dual nature of the description of love. There are the positive qualities—love is patient, kind, and bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. But there are also the negative qualities—what love is not. It is not jealous, boastful, or arrogant. It does not take into account a wrong suffered. There’s more, but this gave me a lot to work with.

1 Corinthians 13

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Kathie Johnson has always had a love for children's books. She collected many as a teacher and began sharing them with other teachers. In 1986, she opened a children's library in her home, and it has continued to expand over the years. Many home-schooled and schooled children borrow books from it, and she takes great pleasure in finding the "right" book for a child. She attends First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley.


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