Friends
Happy Valentine’s Day! May we share our love today with all those we meet and greet!
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Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.
Romans 12:10 – NLT
Love…From that very first cry, we all seek love.
The baby yearns for his mother’s touch. He wants her love. Children clamor for the affection of those they look up to. They want to be noticed, to be praised, to be loved. Young girls dream of being swept away by Prince Charming. Visions of diamonds and wedding gowns swirl in their heads. Young men dash off in hot pursuit of the beautiful girl that catches their eye. Wedding bells chime as the smiling couple glide down the aisle, their beaming faces a mirror of love. The mother cradles her newborn in her arms, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. The middle-age couple stroll hand in hand through the park, lost in intimate conversation, a vision of long standing love. At his bedside, in those final moments, she grasps his hand in one last affirmation of their love.
Love. We all seek love. It is the desire of our hearts. In all the seasons, for all those reasons, we all seek love.
Love. We throw the word love around with reckless abandon, calling anything and everything, something we “love”. If we admire something, we say “we love it”, no matter whether it’s a pretty dress, a beautiful flower, the face of our child, or even our God. No matter the subject, we employ the same word, “love”.
Nothing is more sought after, more desired, more hope for, than love. We all want it. We are desperate for it. We all desire to be loved.
So I ask you, what happened to love?
If love is so cherished, so pursued, so admired, why isn’t there more of it? Why don’t we see an attitude of love in each other? Why don’t we see an attitude of love in our world today?
Today, we see as many broken marriages as we do the ones that succeed. We see children abused at the hands of family members or friends. People who should have loved these children hurt them instead.
We see betrayal at every turn. Lovers break their commitment to one another, choosing instead, the arms of another.
We see friends turning their backs on each other. There are too many fair weather friendships. When hard times come, true friends can’t be found.
Far too many relationships these days are “me-driven”. “I can love you as long as it works for me. I will be there for you as long as it serves my interests. When you need more than I am willing to give, I’m outta here.”
We let opinions or political stances divide us. “If you disagree with me, then I cannot love you.” What happened to loving respect for our unique differences? What happened to civil discourse?
What about God? Where is our love for God? Perhaps it is lost somewhere in the busyness of daily life. “I care about God, but I don’t really have time for Him.” Praise? Worship? Not right now, maybe sometime soon. Busyness confounds our priorities. The day to day keeps us distracted, leaving our love for God last on our list.
Friends, let us pause today and take inventory. Where is our love? Is it well placed or misplaced? Is it real or simply self serving? Is it in short supply or overflowing? Wherever we are, whatever situation we find ourselves in today, let us remember that it is a good day to love.
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Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:11-12 – NIV
PRAYER
O Lord, where is our love? You have given us an endless, overflowing stream of love and yet, we cannot seem to offer such love to those around us. We hold back. We keep grudges. We argue and complain. Forgive us, Lord, and help us find love in our hearts, that we might willingly give it away.
In the Loving Name of Jesus, we pray,
Amen
Blessings,
Anita
-APS 2/14/2022
Faith Beyond Sight 