Love

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

Love does not envy.

Love does not boast.

Love is not proud.

Love is not rude.

Love is not self-seeking.

Love is not easily angered.

Loves keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil.

Love always protects.

Love always trusts.

Loves always hopes.

Love always perseveres.

GOD IS LOVE.

God is faithful to me.

God is patience with my weakness.

God is persistent in his pursuit of me.

God is gentle in his teaching me.

God is constant in his loving me.

God only know how to give agape love.

God is strong in leading me with his hand.

God does not compromise.

God pours out his blessings in love.

God uses his people to love me.

God speaks truth to me in his Word.

God sees me. Really sees me and my manipulation, my scheming, my pride, my judgements, my compromises, my weakness, my faults, my shortcomings, my vanity, my insecurity, my sin, my struggle. He loves me anyway. He loves me because. He loves me besides. He poured in his goodness and kindness and love and forgiveness and mercy and compassion and watches how all of his loves starts to overshadow everything else. It changes everything else and gives it a purpose for knowing his love more.

The only good in me is the good he poured in me.

The only love I have to give has come from him.

Today I celebrate and remember that even when my husband, my parents, my children, my friends, my family, my church fail me, (as they all do because they are human), I live in God's love. I live in a love that transforms me. I live in a love that has set me free from so many struggles. I live with a love that wants to be with me. I live with a love that challenges me and helps me.

I want to love others that way.

I want to give love with abandon.

I believe that when people are loved, we live different. We love more. We judge less. We listen with our hearts and speak with wisdom.

I want to love others so much they see that God has loved them always.

I want to love others in way that they don't feel judged, but cherished, and seen, and heard.

I want to love others the way God has loved me.

I want to love people right here in my little world of my neighborhood.

I want to love the people that are hard for me to love.

I want to love the people that scare me a little.

I want to love the people that I have already given up hope for.

I want to teach my child to love the bully at school.

I want my life to celebrate and reflect the love that has changed me.

If today is only about having or not having a partner, then we are missing the better picture.

Happy day to you. You are loved.


Funny side note: I just pulled out my Bible to make sure I had the love chapter right (1 Cor. 13:4-7) and I said, "Little, I need my Bible."
Little - Why? (hers and every other two year olds favorite question)
Me - Because this is our love story.
Little - OK
Me - This is where God teaches and reminds us that he loves us deeply.
Little - Ohhhh...OK
Me - This is God's word and it will help you whenever you need it.
Little - OK. Bible. OK. Story. OK. Wuv. OK.

Heh...I love that girl in her batman PJ's and snotty nose and ratted hair and black eye.