All we need is love...

Love. It is one of the hardest things to have/share/give, but a common thread throughout The New Testament. In order to truly love someone, you have to show acceptance and forgiveness. Now, people can sit here and say that they don't have to accept someone's faults, but really can you love someone if you don't? Think about that. Can you sit there judging them, tuck them in a neat little box, and love them at the same time? I wonder when I say that how many people start justifying their reasons for why they feel the way they do. How they can pull scripture up, and show that what someone is doing is a sin.

What has brought this on? One simple little verse:

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8.


Simple and straight to the point. I wonder if Jesus and the Disciples got frustrated saying the same thing over and over, but just in different ways. Do you think they sat up at night thinking, 'This has to make sense to them now. How else can I say this?' Why couldn't they think that? It is not a simple coincidence that teacher and preacher sounds so alike. They were teachers. Do you think they sat around at some points thinking of parables and stories to drive their points home? I do. I can picture a group of men talking together and someone (I'm putting someone since we don't know FOR SURE who wrote Matthew~message me if you know for sure) saying, 'I've got it!'

³"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Matthew 7:3

I never really visualized this verse until I was in high school. Think about this: If you have a speck of sawdust in your eye, who does it affect? Only you, right? If there is a plank though, you are going to really affect others. Picture a plank coming out of an eye. As soon as the person turns their head the slightest bit, WHAM it whacks someone else. It stops someone in their journey. Catch that? It is a roadblock, an obstacle, a hindrance not only for the owner of the plank, but for all of those around them.


You think we'd know better by now. After all of these years after Jesus has died, we still are struggling with the same things people did back then.

Peer Pressure:
³For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 1 Peter 4: 3-4

Worry:

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^a]">[a]?

²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-35

Oh, and how powerful is this:

Hope

⁵ I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5

The end of the world:

The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray

1Peter 4:7.



Before He died, we were given our mission: LOVE


1 Peter 3:8
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.

Hebrews 10:24
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Romans 13:8
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

Ephesians 4:2
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.


John 13:34-35

³⁴"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Tucked inside

It's raining again. I'm one of those sickos who loves it. I love hearing it hit the trees and fall with fat plops. There is nothing better than the smell of rain, in my opinion. I'm not talking about that crappy "rain" candle smell either. The freshness of it mixed with tones of dirt is a balm for my soul. I'm watching a big fat spider outside the window clammer down to wrap a bug and crawl back into the safety of his dry home. I wish I had the tenacity of a spider. Their homes can be ruined and the next day rebuilt with such humbling beauty.


We're stripping wallpaper today and patching holes in order to get ready to paint. It's nice to be able to do this right now. We've been meaning to get to it, but just haven't had the time. Now with J being home, we have all the time we need. I do have to admit that I am getting quite spoiled having him home so much. He's jumped right in with helping me do my everyday things. I've always wondered how that would go. You never know really how a person can handle the mundane life of saying home. I mean, I clearly remember the adjustments that needed to be done in my own mind. To see someone enter this, and KNOW how it feels...part of you almost wants to scream, ' Do you reeallly know what you are going to go through?' It's like watching the X Games. You know there are going to be some cool tricks, and some killer falls. Falls that you can't help but watch through squinted eyes. I'll give him this though, he is handling this like a trooper.

Stripped bare

I always lived life before on a complete whim. I never took responsibility serious. I never truly worried about things. If I didn't have a job, I walked into a place that was hiring and got it. To say I was free isn't true. I was weighted down by a feeling of emptiness. What I had was good, but knowing that it wasn't the best was always in the back of my mind. If anything, I ran from that feeling. I ran from looking at myself deeply. I ran from the quiet introspective that comes as night slips in. At times memories are vague, not because I can't remember them, but because I never really was living the moment in them. It is like telling a story about someone else. You know some details, but nothing concrete.

Now it is completely different. I have almost daily documentation showing what I have. I have a husband who grounds me when I need it, and who helps me fly when necessary. I have friends that I cherish and make plans to see even when we all know they might not happen. I take time to stop when the trees seem greener than they ever have. I stop and listen as my children squeal with joy because they see the purity of what is around them. At times the energy in our house is almost tangible.

We are on a new path today. J didn't get the job he applied for. As I laid on the bed thinking about what we were going to do, I heard our boys laughing. I heard birds singing. I heard reminders of life. It is so easy for me to slip into the mind set that I used to have. It would be so easy for me to just pull back and not live in this moment of our life. I refuse to do that. I did it for most of my life and I can't climb back down into that hole. Even now as I write this, I have to fight off negative thoughts. What about winter coming? What will we do if J can't find a job? Will our boys be unhappy? They are poison to my soul.

So, what do I plan on doing? I plan on closing my eyes, taking a deep breath, and pushing myself back from that hole. We're on a journey together. We have two paths in front of us right now. Both will probably lead to the same end, but only we can choose the means of how to get to that end.