My personal dozen “Purpose Statements” are 1. Love God, 2. Love Patty, 3. Love people, 4. Raise Champions, 5. Make disciples, 6. Keep it simple, 7. Train well, 8. Be strong, 9. Be wise, 10. Work hard, 11. Be a witness, and 12. Finish strong. I wrote about loving God and loving Patty in the last 2 blogs, in this blog I will write about loving people. Of the 12 this is the one that is most difficult for me. Not difficult to do but difficult to stay motivated to do. That is because I am so selfish as most are. The first thing I do to overcome my natural selfishness is to pray for people. I do this systematically so that I will be faithful. I used to have a big 3 ring binder with one person per page where I would write the needs, problems, and character issues I needed to pray about for each person. Now I have an IPad where I do the same. The second thing that I do as an act of love is to forgive anybody of anything no matter what they do or how many times they have done it. The third way I can love people is to honor them by listening and paying sincere attention to them when they share their story, needs, problems, and dreams. I am always in a hurry so this is a discipline that I must work at diligently. The forth commitment that I have as an act of love is not to gossip or slander a person to another individual. The last thing is to meet needs in those around me if given the opportunity. I try to pay attention to those obviously God ordained opportunities that come into my life. None of these aspects of loving people will happen unless I review these regularly and think about how I am doing.