Two thoughts rise to the top after my first reading of the four passages. Both provoked memories from my childhood.
1. Jeremiah's phrase, "Ah Lord God Truly I don't know how to speak for I am only a boy!" I remember reading this not long after I was called to preach at the age of 10. I was not a boy, of course, but I focused on the issue of youth. I never told God I couldn't speak because I was young, mostly because I had heard multiple stories of people running from God's call and how it turned out bad. I wanted to speak. I wanted to preach and I did not want to wait until I was grown up. I preached to the kids on the playground and I preached to the kids in my apartment complex. Once the kids in my apartments threw stones at me while I was screeching, "REPENT!" to them. That God me in trouble as my brother told on me and my mom made me stop. I couldn't understand why she would punish me for preaching!
2. The Love Chapter.
I memorized most of this chapter around the age of 12. I remember reading something in my study Bible that wondered why Paul had written this and not a poet like David. And that Paul wrote it right in the middle of an argument about spiritual gifts. But that is where it was needed. Love is the greatest gift. Most people do not understand what true love is. This chapter explains agape. Agape is the Greek word for STEADFAST love or LOYAL love or God's love.
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