Living in Love

"Forsake ambition for affection....Better to pour out our lives in places unknown than to become dry bones in the places we've always been. Only disciples who are convinced they are beloved will in turn love beyond themselves. Actively embracing the lavish love of God is our only means of extending divine love to injured hearts. We simply can not give what we do not have." Beth Moore

I absolutely love that last line.

We simply can not give what we do not have.

Dear Lord, please help me to show my church family what it means to truly love one another. Please let them partake in fellowship with me in my home as we start that new Bible study. Please let me show them what true love is so they can be filled with Your love and in turn that love spilled over into their family, the church family and the families here in our small little town. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen

Praise Reports and Prayer Requests

Praise!

• A dear friend of mine is a Youth Minister at a church in our home state. He will be sending us his church's old Children Church curriculum from the past two years! I needed Wednesday night materials for the children.
• I got a phone call from two members on Valentine's Day just to check in on me. How sweet! Maybe they are warming up a bit to me?
• I may be starting a quilting class with another member of the church. I will learn basic skills, fellowship and get out of the house for a bit. Gonna kick cabin fever to the curb!
• The children's fevers are gone. They still have the coughing and runny nose but no more fevers!

Prayer Request!

• Continue to pray for our church. Repentance needs to take place as well as forgiveness. Pray the Lord starts moving in the hearts of His people.
• Pray for a Women's Bible Study I will be leading soon. Pray that I find the right materials and that women will come and be fed. I will be leading the study out of my home. Pray for guidance and direction. Pray for spiritual growth in the community.
• Pray that I will have opportunities to lead people to Christ. Pray that God places people in my path to witness to.
• Pray for our health. Hubby needs to stay strong and healthy. My dear daughter needs to keep her cholesterol under check and keep her triglycerides low. My dear sons need to get over their cough and sinus drainage. I need to get more sleep, eat healthier and workout to keep my fibromyalgia pains away.
• Pray that God moves at our church in a might way! Pray that people will come back to their first love.

Salvation Requests

• Spencer and Kiera Garland
• Heather White, Tim, Dalton, Madeline and Greta
• Meaghan Kane, Chris Kane, Kristen Kane
• Scotty Harrison
• Julie Conn

Valentine's Day

The best Valentine anyone could ever receive - JESUS!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Dear Jesus,
Thank you for coming into my life and being my Valentine! You are so much better than chocolates and teddy bears, cards and flowers! Thank you for loving me so much that you were willing to die and take my punishment for my sins upon you. Help me show others today and always how much You love them. In Jesus name, Amen

Expressing Love this Valentine's Day Part 1

I have contemplated Valentine's Day for the past twelve years hubby and I have been together. I still remember our first time February 14th rolled around as a married couple. This may sound a bit harsh but I was terribly disappointed. To me, it seemed, that his preparations were an afterthought. Oh he had a card, chocolates and roses but something was missing from the equation. I didn't feel as if he had put thought into "Our Day". I mean, who couldn't have stopped by Walmart after work and bought those items?

Valentine's Day of 2000 I remember too. My daughter was just two weeks old. Besides having given chocolates to me, my beloved also gave his daughter a valentine. I thought that was so sweet and made me warm and fuzzy inside. Over the years as we added children to the family the valentine goodies have become increasingly smaller as our income became tighter and tighter. There were some years where my husband forbade me to get him anything because the income was so sparse. It was during these difficult years where my thinking about this particular day of the year changed.

As my secular worldview morphed into a biblical worldview I started learning what love is and what it really means. I learned that love isn't a simple word with one definition. I learned that love can be shown in a million of ways and that we each have our own unique love language.

1 John 4:7-8 "Beloved, let us love one another. For loveth of God and everyone that loveth is born of God knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another."

This verse, simply says to love.

As I try to live out this commandment from God  I look for creative ways to express love. However if I take too much time trying to think of ways to love someone I might miss the opportunity all together. How sad. Sometimes it's great to put a lot of thought into loving someone; to show them how much you care about them and what they mean to you. Other times we need to just do it.

How do you show love? I would love to hear the ways you express love to others and what others have done for you to make you feel loved.

Until next time ~ LOVE!

Bear

Love is a Choice

"Love is a choice - always - to pour yourself into another and never give up, regardless of whether or not they ever love you back, change, thank you, notice, or even seem to desire to be loved. It is a relentless giving of myself to another, without any strings attached or ulterior motives. It is giving another the permission to hurt me and purposing to not pull back or quit when it does hurt. This is Jesus."

This is also what I am attempting to do with my church family. They deserve love just as I do. It hurts to love them because I don't feel they love me or my family in return. When it hurts to love so much we should do it even more. I am searching for ways to show them love yet hide my hurt. I'm find myself seeking God in prayer more. I'm asking Him, the Father of Love, to fill me with His love so much that His love bubbles out of me.  As He shows me ways to share His love with them I will share with you because I want to encourage you to do the same.  What could happen if all of God's people loved each other like He loves them?

I'm going to start with one of the most famous verses in the Bible on love.

1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 

Dear Jesus,  I ask that you help me in this endeavor called love.  Throughout the rest of the week Lord bring to my mind this Scripture. Allow me to meditate on it. I ask Lord that you help me to be patient with the church members.  Lord, they still don't know us very well. Help me to realize this and not judge them too quickly. Lord, let all my actions be ladled with kindness.  Teach me not to boast about myself to them. Teach me instead to allow them to boast to me and show me things that You have taught them. Help me to learn from them.  Take away any pride I may carry in my heart Lord. I fall humbly at Your feet. Do not allow me to dishonor others in the church by participating in gossip. Help me Lord to not get angry with Your people,  but instead Lord,  shower them with compassion.  Help me Jesus. Help me forgive them when they hurt me and my family. As You guide me with Your truth help me to teach them also.  Lord, I will rejoice when Your perfect will is made known. Lord I will rejoice when the truth comes out. Lord I seek Your help and Your guidance.  Help me to protect Your people by gently guiding them to Your wonderful words that  You have given us in the form of the Bible. I trust in Your ways Lord. All of my hope is in You Lord. My strength is in You Lord and only You, Amen

One Proud Momma!

Homeschooling has characterized most of my days until just recently. For reasons I won't get into at this time we have ceased homeschooling for the time being and placed our dear children in the care of the public school system.

Homeschooling has laid a wonderful foundation for my children. They have a love for learning that I'm convinced came from our homeschooling journeys. My children are able to communicate with people from different generations. They have been taught Christian morals and virtues. Our journeys in homeschooling have taught the children how to search out information for themselves and not to rely on spoon feedings from anyone. If they want to know more about a specific subject they have the tools required to find out for themselves. (And often do!)

Our youngest came home today with a recommendation letter from his teacher to attend ATOMS Scholar Program this summer. It is a high level, intensive math and science laboratory experience. Yes, he is nervous about going to a different school almost an hour away but I know he will benefit so much from this experience! I have to credit him getting this far ahead in his academics. In my heart I know it's because of  homeschooling and providing him opportunities to grow at his pace and in the way in which he learns.

 I won't hold it in and I'll shout it from the mountain tops! Yes! I'm one proud momma!

Lessons from Snow

Lesson # 1

Friendship can be likened to snow lying on the ground without the blemishes of footprints and snowmen.  However, once the snow is trampled upon and snowmen make their claim on the territory, the picturesque landscape now has character. So it is with friendship. You can either trample on it, tread softly or even move slowly but the footsteps are still there . The snowmen of relationships are the things you do with each other, for each other, and to each other. Snowmen may melt but the memory of making them will always be there.

Lesson # 2

There are no such things as ghost...just limbs scratching your roof top like a cat scratches at a litter box, melting icicles against a tin window frame and whistling wind.

Lesson # 3

It doesn't matter how cold it is outside  when your with friends and having fun,  but it's always too cold to shovel snow and take the trash out.

Lesson # 4

Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Snow is a great reminder of how I'm covered in the Blood of Jesus and made white as snow.  It reminds me of a great song by Praise Band : White as Snow / Nothing but the Blood lyrics:

White as snow, white as snow
Though my sins were as scarlet
Lord, I know, Lord, I know
That I'm clean and forgiven

Through the power of Your blood
Through the wonder of Your love
Through faith in You
I know that I can be
White as snow

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Thoughts on Snow Part 1

Snow comes often up here in Pennsylvania. As a southerner it takes some getting used to.  Instead of getting annoyed by all the snow I decided to ask God to show me the beauty in it.  When He did, the results were amazing!

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."  ~John Ruskin

There is a certain truth to that.  The most beautiful scene I've seen in a while was on a solitary drive the other day.  For 45 minutes I drove up and down hills with cascading mountains in the backdrop. Everything was blanketed with snow. The snow sparkled when the sun's rays touched it. The snow laden fields looked as if God had sprinkled gold glitter over them. How I longed for the camera to capture this picturesque scene!

When you step foot outside after the snow has fallen the air is crisp and detoxifying. The clean air finds your nostrils and as you breath it in you may even sigh in your heart. It alters your mood and gives you a fresh perspective on life. A sense of new beginnings.

The crisp snow crunches under your feet. That in and of itself is exhilarating! You feel like a kid again as youthfulness bubbles up inside and you reach down to make a snowball. You contemplate if you should actually throw it at your spouse. Deciding it could turn into an all out war, you drop it back on the ground although in your mind the snowball is splattered across his forehead.

There is beauty in the snow but also life lessons. Tomorrow, I will ponder the life lessons it has taught me thus far.