Love Lessons

The giving of love is an education in itself.  ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
 
Those words appeared in my Quote of the Day widget this morning and seem very fitting.
 
Loving others is an ongoing educational theme in our family.  We love others because the LORD compels us to do as He did. 
We love others even when it is hard, messy, inconvenient or costly.  Serving the homeless, the poor, the outcasts of society is seldom easy, neat, convenient or cost-free.  But it is necessary.
We love those many deem unloveable because He loves them and wants to love them through us. 
 
Recently we've had to show our children that even when those we love (and at one time appeared to love us) do not treat us with either love or respect, we must still love and respect them.  And these painful  lessons come not from reaching out, but right inside our church family, where  Love One Another should be the standard.  Sadly, we've had more conversations with our children lately about how we are to respond when others in the church don't act in a godly, loving manner, than those centered on how to reach out in love to those who don't yet know Christ.  We are open and honest about these issues because we want our children to see that just like in our own family, when issues arise they must be dealt with, but always in love.  We love because He loves us, bottom line.  Even when it is hard, messy, inconvenient, and heart-breaking.  We pray, we talk, we cry, we pray more, and we love ... and we keep on loving no matter what. 
 
How do you teach "love lessons" in your family? 
 

Amor Es

How do we love like the Father?

As I was pondering that question this morning, I picked up my Bible and perused the concordance for LOVE. Two themes seemed to be most prominent when I went looking for Love in the scriptures ...

God's love

endures forever



God's love is

unfailing



Those are tough, aren't they?

Forever is a long time. And being all too human, enduring anything unpleasant for even a short time is well ... apt to make me not as loving as I know I should be.



Unfailing ... let's just say that doesn't describe me ...



So, I know that to love like the Father, I will have to do what I must when anything good or godly is required... Let HIM do it! Only by allowing Him love others through me can I ever hope to love as He does. I must empty myself and allow Him to fill me with Himself, who is love.



Amor Es. That is the title of the song we sang in prayer group last night. Yes, in Spanish. (We are part of a bilingual fellowship, and are very slowly learning this beautiful language.) But no, I really didn't know the meaning of much of what I was singing at the time.

I did know that Amor Es means Love Is, but that was about the extent of it.


This morning I did some translating and was touched by the beauty and truth in the song. Here is my translation of the chorus (pieced together with the aid of an online dictionary):

Love is to give yourself in soul and body to mankind.

To live always serving, without expecting something for yourself.

That is exactly what God did through Jesus ... and what He still does today, through us.

I pray that like You, Father, may all that I do be done in love (1Cor. 16:14).

To read how others Love like Father, visit Holy Experience today.

Winter Thoughts

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. ~Edith Sitwell

As I attempt a little homemaking and homekeeping today, I am mindful that these are some of the things that make a home- comfort, food, warmth, touch, freedom to talk openly and someone to listen, faith, hope, ... and most important of all - Love.
That's what we all need most in life, isn't it? To love and be loved.


We can fill our homes with all manner of things, but if we do not fill our hearts and homes with faith, hope, and love; we have created an empty (though full) house rather than a home where loved ones can grow and bloom.


And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

I pray the warmth of God's Love fills your heart and home this wintery weekend!