Sometimes the best way to bring on the best joy days is simply to say,
Yes.
Yes, I will blow up every last balloon in both of those bags.
(I feel a bit dizzy now, but it was worth it! :)
(I feel a bit dizzy now, but it was worth it! :)
Yes, because I'm your Mama, and Mama's need them some good-old-fashion-joy too!
Yes, after all, you asked me oh so nicely...
My treasures have a thing about balloons...
And I have a thing about them...
I'd say yes a million times over to see those faces,
To hear that laughter...
To soak up that absolute joy of it all, and to learn the simple ways of love...
That's what we're learning around here.
It's February and we're purposing to soak up and pour out the ways that He loves us every moment of every day!
We're learning how we might love, even when the loving might sting a little.
********
Friends were here at the Farm on a Friday morning.
That's when I heard her screaming bloody murder up in her room.
Once I got up the stairs and rounded the corner, there she was, hands tied right up with her very own rainbow-heart jump rope.
I asked me Siah if he was the culprit.
"I kinda wanna lie... but I know it's better to tell the truth." he looked right into my eyes as he spoke.
This Mama smiled.
"Tell me the truth my love."
"Well, she wasn't listening to me. So... Well, I'm a pirate... So... pirates tie up the ones who don't listen."
"Hmmmm. Interesting."
"Am I in trouble?"
"Bud, do you think tying your sister up with her jump rope was the right way to solve this problem?"
"No," My Siah hung his head and stuck out that sad-boy lip of his.
"So what should you do about it?"
"Untie her and make it right."
"Sounds like a plan bud."
"Reesie, I'm sorry I tied you up. I'll try not to do that anymore. Do you forgive me?"
The good news is, My Siah and The Spunky girl are friends again.
The messy news is, My Siah's pirate side has crept out a few more times and he has needed some reminders that we don't solve problems by tying up our sisters. :(
*****************
Learning to love. It can be quite the process sometimes. :)
So around here, we talk long through the messy moments,
And we sit and we soak long in these crazy joy moments.
The latter far outweighs the mess.
God is love.
When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us.
This way, love has the run of the house,
becomes at home and mature in us,
so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—
our standing in the world is identical with Christ's.
There is no room in love for fear.
Well-formed love banishes fear.
Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
We, though, are going to love—love and be loved.
First we were loved, now we love.
He loved us first.
If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar.
If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt:
Loving God includes loving people.
You've got to love both.
1 John 4:16-21 MSG
Around here, we are always in the learning.
It's February, and His love is everywhere always.:)
