Thursday, December 13, 2012

LOVE...we have no idea...

I am an animal lover!  I love all kind of animals.  As far as pets, most people fit into one of two categories…a “dog person” or a “cat person.”  I can’t say that I fit into either category, really…because I love cats and I love dogs.  Unfortunately, my husband and cats don’t go well together, and I don’t want to get rid of him!  So, we recently added a new member to the family.  About 9 months ago, we got a puppy!  For my children, this is their FIRST puppy…  For me, this is my first puppy in about 15 years, and the FIRST puppy that I have ever had in the house!  She won me over in no time, and I am extremely attached to her.  Sometimes I look at her cute little face, and say, “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”  She is loyal, she is obedient (most of the time)…but she can’t love me in the way that I love her, and she can’t know how much I love her…

                                                                                                

Now, puppy love is one thing…but the love of a mother…that’s a totally different spectrum.  If you have read my previous blog posts, you know that I have two boys and a girl.  My boys are 9 and 8 (born 13 months apart), and my daughter is 6 (and a half!).  I stay at home with them and homeschool them.  They are a part of my every day, 24 hours a day…and I wouldn’t have it any other way (even on the difficult days).  I believe that children are a blessing, a gift, given to us by God (Psalm 127:3).  I am thankful that I am able to be with them, to teach them, and to love them!  Many times throughout the years, I have looked into their eyes, and said, “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”  My mother used to tell me that I would never know how much she loved me until I had children of my own.  I believe that she was right.  I understand so much more now about why she did, said, and chose the things that she did.  While my children DO love me, they don’t know the love of a mother (or a father) yet…

 

I have also been blessed to experience another spectrum of love…the love that I have for my husband!  We celebrated our tenth anniversary this year.  I can truly say that my love for him is more today than it was 10 years ago.  It is a love that words cannot describe, and that spans so many situations.  My husband loves  me, and has the capacity to feel the same love for me that I feel for him, yet some days, I will ask him, “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”  His response is usually, “I think so,” with that little smirk of his that I love so much!  I couldn’t imagine my life without him, and I don’t want to ever have to experience life without him!

 

While I am so blessed to experience the depths of different kinds of love in my life, there is one love that I just cannot comprehend!  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotton Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”  (John 3:16)   “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Romans 5:8)  “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?   Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 8:35, 37-39)   “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  (1 John 4:9-10)

“O how He loves you and me, o how He loves you and me.  He gave His life, what more could He give…o how He loves you, o how He loves me, o how He loves you and me.”  (O How He Loves You and Me! by Kurt Kaiser)

“He left the splendor of heaven, knowing His destiny was the lonely hill of Golgatha there to lay down His life for me.  And if that isn’t love then the ocean is dry, there’s no stars in the sky, and the sparrow can’t fly.  If that isn’t love, then heaven’s a myth.  There’s no feeling like this.  If that isn’t love…”  (If That Isn’t Love by Dottie Rambo)

“…Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade…to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole tho stretched from sky to sky.  O love of God, how rich and pure!  How measureless and strong!  It shall forevermore endure the saints’ and angels’ song.”  (The Love of God by Frederick M. Lehman)

 

And…all of those things that I mentioned at the beginning of this post…He gave them all to me because He loves me…to show His love for me!!!  

 

I wonder if God sometimes asks, “Do they have any idea how much I love them?”

“…and to know of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge…”  (Ephesians 3:19)

We have no idea… 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

30 Days of Thanks (21-30)

Well, it is the second week of December, and I am just now getting around to posting the final section of my 30 Days of Thanks for Thanksgiving!!! 


Day 21:  I am thankful for cell phones…I know that might sound weird or materialistic…but I can reach people for the most part, no matter what.  We take our cell phones with us everywhere…so at the store, at the doctor’s office, or on the road…we can reach our friends and family.  I am thankful for this because there are times when I need to talk to someone in my family…in an emergency situation or just in need of advice…and I can reach them without any problems, usually.  There are times when they are busy, when the phone is dead, or the reception isn’t good, but for the most part, we can get in touch no matter where we are.

 

Day 22:  Today is THANKSGIVING!  I am a strong supporter of being thankful all year long, and I try to be…but I am so thankful that we have a day set aside where people will think about what they are thankful for…what God has blessed them with…what they have that others may not.  It has become much too commercialized for my liking (Black Friday starts after dinner on Thursday??!), but I am still glad that this is a day set apart for thinking about being thankful for what we have.  I watched a football game with my husband tonight…and they allowed the coaches and some of the players to tell what they were thankful for.  I appreciate that even though football has become a big part of most Thanksgiving celebrations that they still throw in there that the players and coaches are thankful for more than just a game.

 

Day 23:  I am thankful for medicine.  I believe that God is the ultimate healer, but I do believe that He has given people the good sense to make things that will help us when we do not feel well.  I am part of that group today.  I am not sure what I have, but it feels like a really bad head cold.  I am thankful that it just takes a short trip to the store to pick up some medicine that will (hopefully) make me feel better.

 

Day 24:  As I went out to the store last night, I saw that several people had put up their Christmas decorations.  I am thankful for the decoration.  I don’t know if everyone feels this way, but a house all lit up with lights celebrating the season just lifts my spirits.  It lets me know that something special is coming…and also just brightens up the dark of night.  I so enjoy seeing those decorations and am thankful for them and for those people who take time to decorate the outsides of their homes for all of us to enjoy!

 

Day 25:  I am thankful that it is only one more month until Christmas!!!!

 

Day 26:  I am thankful that my children are able to play, and that I am able to hear them playing.  My daughter was born with some physical “problems” that were fixable.  We went to the Shriner Hospital to have her problems “fixed.”  Nothing like a place like that to humble a mother!  I saw a mother who had to sit by the wheelchairs of her child, wiping away the drool because the child had no control over himself.  The mother kept looking at my daughter, who was dancing around the room, singing, and talking to every person who walked by our room.  I was so humbled.  We might have problems, but this lady has it worse than I do.  We can always find someone that has more problems or what we think is more problems than we have…although most seem to think that the grass is greener on the other side...  I am very thankful that my children CAN play and laugh with each other…and thankful that my ears work just fine to hear them (even though they do sometimes get a bit loud!).

 

Day 27:  I am thankful for photographs.  I have been looking at pictures today…of myself when I was young, my parents, my grandparents (who have since passed away), aunts, uncles, cousins, and other family members.  I enjoy the memories that a photograph brings with it.  It amazes me how I can see a picture of a time in my past, and it’s almost like I am magically transported to that time…  I miss my grandparents and miss the fun times that we shared as a family when I was growing up, so these pictures hold very special memories for me, and I am so glad that we have them.

 

Day 28:  I am thankful for my parents coming to visit!  They will be here in about 11 days.  I am thankful that they take the time to drive 10 hours to visit with me, my husband, and our children.  Since I am an only child, my three children are their only grandchildren…and I am thankful that they take time out of their lives to spend time with us. 

 

Day 29:  I am thankful for good food and good company.  We recently had dinner out with my husband’s mother and father…at an Italian restaurant.  We really don’t go out to restaurants very often…but this was special…and the food was DELICIOUS…but the company was the greatest!  I am glad that my husband sees that spending time with his parents as they get older is important, and that our children value the time that they spend with them as well.  They all wanted to sit the closest to Mamaw or Granddad!

 

Day 30:  I am thankful that tomorrow is December!  I am excited about Christmas getting closer…and now that December is almost here, more people will be “noticing” and decorating and celebrating!  I am ready to celebrate the birth of Christ, our Lord and Savior, with my family!