Love

Being that it is Valentine's Day I have been inspired to write about.......you guessed it.....

Love

I know that some feel today was designed as a clever marketing tactic to sucker more money out of the consumer but my response to that...

Everyday should be Valentine's Day! By that I mean that you can forgo the flowers, chocolates, and fancy dinners but you should take the time and opportunity to show those in your life how much you love them each and every day. Love isn't designed by how much you spend but instead, the heart condition behind what you do to show them how much you love them.

One of my greatest acts of showing my boys that I love them costs me pennies. Literally. Every time I clean their bathroom I am showing how deep my love goes for them. I hate cleaning the bathroom and always have. Cleaning my own isn't so bad but cleaning up after other people, entirely different story. Especially when three boys ages 11, 5, and 3 years old dominate the bathroom usage. But I realize that by giving them a clean bathroom I am showing them that I love them, whether they realize it or not. It is critical that I do this with a loving heart condition and not out of a heart condition of bitterness or resentment.

I ended up looking up what "LOVE" means according to good ol' Mr. Webster and there were actually a few different definitions. These are a couple that I chose to share with you:


love
noun \ˈləv\

a (1) : strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties.

love

verb \ˈləv\

1. To hold dear: cherish
2. To thrive in. 

As you can see, there is "LOVE" as a noun and then there is "LOVE" as a verb and this really got me  thinking about what type of "love" I am showing and giving. (As you all know a noun is a person, place, or thing and then the verb is an action.) I am sincerely hoping that my "love" for my family, friends, and more importantly God, is more than just a "thing". I hope people can see the love that I have in all that I do. I  pray that I do the things I need to in order to show those that I do love just how much I love them.

One of my favorite all time scriptures:

"We love because he first loved us." 1John 4:19

Once again, we owe it all to God. When I became a wife and a mother I realized what true love really was from a human perspective. The fact that I would walk into a burning building to save my children, that I would give one of my organs if it meant saving my husband's life or one of my children's lives, that I will continually lay down my own will to honor my husband as the leader of our household; this is a love that I never realized before God gave me these gifts. To think of all those things and then realize that God loves us exponentially more is truly humbling. How does anything that I have compare to that? Thank God that He totally understands how "human" we really are and loves us anyway.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35