Love is a word that, I believe, has lost something along the way.  I LOVE peanut butter and chocolate.  I LOVE the beach.  I LOVE the sun and I LOVE the rain.  I LOVE that guy because he looks good in jeans or that girl, etc. and so on.  You get the point.  That’s not the kind of love I want.  I want to be loved back.  Peanut butter and chocolate do not love me back.

As a Christian, I know what the bible says love is.  God is love.  I believe that.  But what does that mean?  To me, it means He is made of love, He is made to love and He is made to be loved.  It’s not a light, on the surface kind of human love.  It’s a love that goes so deep that I cannot see the bottom.  It’s a sacrificial love.  That is because I believe there is no bottom, no end to His love.

I believe that the living God gave the ultimate sacrifice for me, His son, Jesus Christ.  I believe the trinity of God, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit lives  inside  me.  Therefore I should be full of love.  But am I?

There is the beauty of LOVE.  God gave us all a free will.  I can choose.  I chose Him and all He has for me……… but I fail daily.  Heck, hourly, by the second.  I am a frail human being.  I’m not condemned for my failure in this lack of love – although other humans like to condemn me – but God does not.  He still loves me.

I can on and on with what I believe, but the point I’m trying to make is – what does it look like to be loved?

I don’t think I need to agree with everything my spouse of forty-one years does.  He doesn’t agree with everything I like or believe.  It would be so boring if we agreed on everything.  Probably wouldn’t have lasted forty-one years!  But we love each other.  Through all kinds of crap and flowery things.  Through sickness and health, through poorness and richness.  Through great loss and great new life.  We choose to love each other.  No matter how mad I get – and I do – I choose to love him

Now, why this post?  I really want to love others.  I want to look at the guy or gal who is full of hate and anger and totally thinks I’m out in left field — I want to look at them and love them.  Love them no matter what.  It is the hardest thing for me to do.  To love someone who doesn’t love me back.  Or even like me.  But I have it within me to be able to do that.

Baby steps.  One step at a time.  Pick myself up, minute by minute, and try again.  To love.  To love as I am loved.

Here’s a fresh pumpkin pie out of the oven – made with honey and love.  Have a piece with me and let’s talk about love.

Enjoy!

wingedprisms