Loving Others

God is continuing to knock on my heart about love and what it looks like to love others well. Sometimes these lessons come from the absence of love's expression to make me see what it looks like and other times it comes from the presence of its expression to see it. I will try to explain more tomorrow when my tears have stopped falling. But, for now...

Tomorrow, my goal is to tell someone something that I think they do really well and tell them a strength that I see in them. Would you want to join me in this?

My hope is that we will share God's love and lighten each other's steps! =)

Love

It is a funny thing about love...

When someone loves people that are close to your heart, you feel loved. When they are left out, you feel left out.

Or at least I do as a mom.

This week I had two experiences that reminded me of these things.

1) We went to Awanas last night. The girls had a wonderful time as always. Even as I sit here, I can't help but smile because the leaders are all so kind and loving to my girls. Sami struggles at preschool when she goes to school and often cries. But, she has never had a hard time at Awanas. She wants to go every week. But, I've also been blessed by the kindness of the folks to me--that they smile when they see me and say hello. They are glad to see me--and I am glad to see them! God uses the people at that church to encourage my family every week.

2) We went somewhere else as well and I watched as my girls didn't realize that they were left out. There wasn't enough room at the inn. It wasn't on purpose or anyone's fault. It was just what happened. Someone realized that there wasn't room and then found room for them. But, by that time, my heart had already hurt for my girls. I had Eli in my arms and there just wasn't much that I was able to do on my own. (I do know this was completely accidental--I firmly believe that God was using this in my life because of something that I'm working on and thinking about.)

It is the joys that we cherish and that make us smile and want to love others. But, it is the hurts (both accidental and purposeful) that help us to love and remind us to love others.

At least that's what I've been learning...