Oh, I love....
these new jeans....this TV show....
Saturdays....rainy days....the beach....chocolate ice cream....
puppies....you....surprises....thunder storms....books....football....shrimp....
Love. The word rolls off our tongues every few minutes. To hear us talk, we are the most loving of people. We love everything....and anything.
The saying "talk is cheap" has a lot of truth to it. If we're running around loving everything all day, do our words carry much weight when we tell our spouses, children, loved ones, friends, or anyone else for that matter, that we love them?
There's nothing wrong with telling people we love them, but it shouldn't stop there. We've got to put legs on our love. Love needs to be shown. Love is a VERB. It is an action. It is something we need to DO.
God showed His love in a major way:
The saying "talk is cheap" has a lot of truth to it. If we're running around loving everything all day, do our words carry much weight when we tell our spouses, children, loved ones, friends, or anyone else for that matter, that we love them?
There's nothing wrong with telling people we love them, but it shouldn't stop there. We've got to put legs on our love. Love needs to be shown. Love is a VERB. It is an action. It is something we need to DO.
God showed His love in a major way:
"For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him
shall not perish
but have eternal life."
~ John 3:16
Lucky for us, showing love doesn't require sacrificing our children. It really doesn't even require grand gestures, though those can be nice sometimes.
1 Corinthians 13 tells us an awful lot about what we need to know about how love should be in this world.
"Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast,
it is not proud. It is not rude, it
is not self-seeking, it s not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs. Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices
with the truth. It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails."
Love, then, is in the daily doing. It is in the small things that may not even be noticed....until they are no longer there.
Love is being the one to go out on a cold Sunday morning to collect the paper so the other one doesn't have to. Love is going to every game and cheering....even if the child never leaves the bench. Love is cooking a favorite meal even though you hate it. Love is going to see that movie with more explosions and gun-fire than plot, even though the one movie you've been dying to see is playing in the next theater. Love is doing that laundry one more time and folding it and putting it away in the drawer so it will be there when needed. Love is cutting the crust off the toast and kissing the boo-boos. Love is flushing a dead goldfish with all the pomp of a state funeral. It's killing spiders and wiping noses and reaching things from the tall shelf.
And love is in the counting...
454. An unplanned, spontaneous day spent with the man.
455. A thank-you gift from the camp for driving the bus.
456. The surprise and happiness on the face of a boy at camp when he realized it was me, his regular bus driver for school.
457. Signs of growing up in the puppy.
458. Deep-fried green beans. So bad, but so good.
459. The beauty of this world we live in.
460. Farmers' markets filled with ripe tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, fresh corn, earthy potatoes, onions, garlic and all the other flavors and smells of late summer.
461. More books from a used book sale.
462. A great book club on Facebook.
463. Hearing a scary noise at night and figuring out it's only a branch scraping on the siding.
464. A country where we can all have and voice our opinions.
465. A dad remembered today, on what would have been his 84th birthday.
465. A dad remembered today, on what would have been his 84th birthday.
5 comments:
Love how you put "love" into perspective. Great thoughts. Lovely list.
Have a blessed Monday...
Max Lucado suggests we put our names in the Corinthians verse instead of "love," to see how we fall short and how we can grow. He used the name Jesus as an example, and then his own.
Funny, now that I think of it, Brad was told as a child to insert his name in John 3:16, "So Bradford..." and it convinced him. I pray that sometimes for family members, I insert their names...
My sweet Stacy...SIster in Him. I am smiling as I read the post. Beautiful...and yes I love it! ;)Not to mention DC Talk is the only "rap" band I can handle. ANd I LOVE them, too...why did they have to break up? Love...oh I have so much more growing to do before I grow into the Love He has for me...His Love. Great post!
A good reminder. We absolutely overuse this word, and so casually. How often teens think they are "in love." In our society, sex means love, which is really damaging. So many people are hurt because they don't understand the difference. We need God to understand true love.
Stefanie...Thank you and thanks for visiting me! :)
Ellen...I do the name thing anytime a verse catches me and I really want to drive it home. Love that about Brad and John 3:16, what an awesome story to share.
Dawn...I miss dc Talk, too! They were awesome. Growing...yes, much more to do.
Mare...Absolutely! One of my favorite memes out there on Pinterest and Facebook is the one of Willy Wonka with the caption "Oh, you've know each other two days....tell me again how in love you are." Love is not an emotion. It is a decision and they don't know that.
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