Late Afternoon Shadows
Late afternoon shadows –
sun sparkling on snow –
everything is beautiful –
no matter where you go!
Archive for February, 2014
Love on Valentine’s Day
Love is on fire today. Love is in the air. It’s Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to LOVE. Love has so many meanings in the English language. Other languages use different words to describe family love, love of God, sweetheart love, love of food or objects, etc. The English word LOVE covers them all – and then some! As a result we can sometimes overuse this four-letter word and in the process dilute its power. Valentine’s Day is a good time to take stock of our use of it. Examine what we truly love and how we express it. Define it in a way that gives it the most power and influence in your life and in the lives of those you truly LOVE. Reread 1 Corinthians 13:4–8a and 1Timothy 1:5. Think about the meaning of Romans 13:10 and Luke 6:32. Contemplate what it means to “let everything be done in love,” as the Bible instructs us in 1 Corinthians 16: 14. Then, decide what you will DO today to demonstrate the love that is in your heart. Try to list at least ten things.
As for me, I…
1) … reached out to my children to say, “I love you.”
2) … am serving with love at the reception desk at our local hospital.
3) … made a special trip to visit a friend and thanked her for helping me with my plants and my home while I was away this past couple months.
4) … will write some thank you cards to the people who extended their hospitality to us while we were traveling.
5) … will hug my neighbors and share an evening meal with them tonight.
6) … spent time in my sancutary this morning, praying for family and friends who are hurting and in need of healing, reading my Bible and devotionals, and praising God for His many blessings.
7) … will write a letter to my grandson who has just entered the Navy and is in boot camp.
8) … demonstrated “love your neighbor as yourself” by taking care of myself – I made healthy meal choices, kept an appointment with my doctor, and I worked out at the fitness center.
9) … mailed a package to a friend in Switzerland.
10) … wrote this blog to reach out in love to each of you.
Tell me about your Valentine’s Day Love list! Are you on fire with love today? Remember, as Bob Goff said, “Love Does.” Don’t just say love or think love – go do it!!
Family and Friends
There are friends who are family and family who are friends.
There is joy in knowing the love never ends.
There is joy in the morning and there’s joy in the night.
But the God-joy eternal is the best joy in sight!
We are blessed by our family and by our friends, too,
But the blessings of faith bring the best love to you –
Because God is the maker of friends who uplift.
He takes fleeting moments and wraps them up as a gift.
If you have the fortune to have a best friend who’s your gift,
If that friend is there for you to give you a lift,
I hope you thank God every day of your life –
Especially if that friend is your husband or wife.
And if in your family you are blessed with a pet,
The love and devotion may be the best it can get!
For an animal gives unconditional love –
The kind we can learn if we’re connected above.
I thank God today for family and friends – true-blue,
For the two-legged ones and the four-legged, too.
May I always be faithful to love joyfully.
Dear loved ones, be assured, you can count on me.
JanBeek 