"Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that."
Ephesians 5 (MSG)
I wanna love like this.
I want His kindness to flow off my tongue every_ single_day.
I want to laugh joy with these little ones every_single_day.
I wanna pour out words that only make their souls stronger every_single_day.
Valentines Day, it's this sweet celebration of His absolutely EXTRAVAGANT love for us.
It's that sweet love that compels us to live under His Word, under His wing.
It's His kindness that woos us to obey His commands.
"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled."
Ahhh, such refreshing words to a Mama's soul.
Sometimes I wonder if there is any other job out there that makes you any more aware of your inadequacies, than in the job of being a mother? What is it about those little people that make you so brutally aware of all that you just can't seem to do right?
But when The Complete arrives, OUR INCOMPLETES WILL BE CANCELED.
Thank you sweet Jesus.
Just thank you.
This Valentines Day we bathed ourselves in His extravagant love. The kids each invited one friend. We turned up the music and spent the morning decorating the sun room together. And as we sat around the table with all their little friends, my Siah he talked to his sweet Jesus and thanked him for His amazing love for us. We played games and made hearts and ate lots of cake. It was simple and oh so sweet.
And we the Cowboy got home, he took us all to Fargos for dinner...
Going out to dinner... the absolute best gift for a Mama, any day of the year! :)
{I've never met a more loved on little man than this little guy. His Mama, Papa, and all his siblings can't seem to get enough of him. :)}
These kids, they crack me. They know how to live the fullest life and they don't even know what it means to hold back.
These two crazy kids... the Mamas were in the kitchen washing dishes, when we peeked in the sun room and found these two treasures living it up and devouring a triple layer strawberry cream cake... who needs a fork when you've got a mouth full of perfectly great teeth?
And so we'll ask the Lord to help us out and teach us to...
"Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that."
Yes Lord, help this little farmhouse family, to love like that.
