what Love is...

Today at work, I was talking to one of the other girls there, and somehow through the course of the morning, it came up that she's been divorced three times. (which I had known, just from hearing her say it, but she'd not specifically told me before...) She said that when she moved from her last apartment to where she is now, she left whatever she couldn't lift herself, because her family would not help her. I just found it all incredibly sad. It is so heart-breaking. If I were in a situation like that, my family would help me. My church would help me. My friends outside of church would help me... I have family and friends all over the place, and if they could find a way to help me, I know without a doubt that they would do it. However they could help. I cannot imagine what it would be like to come from a family that does not love and support you. It is just really foreign to everything I have ever known.

As for her divorcing three times... that breaks my heart too. I am a huge believer that Love is a choice, not a feeling, and when we treat it like a feeling... that is where the problems begin. Love is patient and kind, it is selfless and humble, it doesn't envy... Love gives generously and puts others first.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13)

Love forgives, protects, trusts...

There is no greater Love than to lay down your life for a friend. (John 15:13)

I cannot ~ and quite honestly, I don't want to ~ imagine life without Love. I have found the greatest Love ever in Jesus, and to fall in Love with Him is the best thing that anybody could ever do. It changes your life all around...

Through learning more of this girl's story, I am being given an opportunity, and I have a choice of what I am going to do with this opportunity. I have the opportunity to continue to get to know her better and to show her God's Love... teach her what it is like through the way I live my life. My choice is whether or not I will take advantage of the opportunity to share His Love with her. I so want to. I am praying for God's wisdom to know what to say to her and when to say it. We had a really good conversation today. And you know, she's ten years older than me, but we talk all the time at work, and I really enjoy talking with her. I believe God has given me this opportunity to befriend her so that, although she's that much older than me, I can teach her through what God has done and continues to do in my own life. I can be an example of God's Love for us all in my words, actions, friendships, etc. I am so excited about it all, as the semester goes on.

"Love's done something"... in my life, and I have this need to share it. We all have this need. Sometimes we just choose to ignore and silence it.

Pray for me, please, as I have this opportunity. I choose to take hold of it and go for it.