I don’t know if we share the mutual agreement that Change sucks. It just does. I have heard many people say they don’t like change, so I am pretty sure I am not alone in this. I know that every NEW YEAR we re-evaluate our lives and always decide that come January 1st we are going to change. We are going to join the gym, start eating healthy, get rid of bad habits, bad friends, be better to ourselves, start reading more, spend less time watching tv, go back to school, get a dog, cut our hair, get a new job, or whatever resolution we had planned. Reality is we rarely stick with it because we hate CHANGE! Change is uncomfortable even if it’s for our own good.
I remember as a teenager, I came home from school and my mother had a big surprise for me. She told me to go into my room and I would see me surprise. I expected something exciting.. a present, a dog, a cat, anything besides what was behind my bedroom door. I remember running to my bedroom with my mother close behind me. I held on to that doorknob looking back at my mother with a smile on my face as she excitedly smiled back at me. I flung that door open with great enthusiasm to what was the worst surprise I ever laid my eyes on. SHE REARRANGED MY BEDROOM! My big smile that had once been plastered on my face turned into the biggest look of disappointment. My bed that was once next to the wall was in the middle of my room.. my dressers were moved, my pictures moved, EVERY SINGLE THING was changed around in my room. I fought back the tears. I couldn’t even hide my disappointment. I remember saying things like, “I won’t be able to open my closet door because my bed will be in the way.” My mother would ensure me that she took all that into account as she reorganized my room. I can’t even begin to explain to you how upset I was by this little thing. It seemed as though my whole world had just been turned upside down. I was so upset that I could barely talk to my mother who had worked all day on my bedroom, I am embarrassed to admit that I threw a silent but deadly tantrum. I would like to tell you  to keep in mind that I was just a teenager but I am not sure that my reaction wouldn’t be the same today. Why? Because I HATE CHANGE!
There is good news though. It turns out that the rearranging of my room was the best arrangement of furniture ever. I had this huge window that was on one wall of my room and every afternoon around 2:00 the sun shone in my room and the sun would land right on my bed. My bed became the fight for each member of my family to have an afternoon nap in because the warmth of the sun made it so delightful to lay in and rest. I still miss naps in that room. I ended up loving the set up of my room and never regretted it.
I tell this story because I have been reflecting on what is to come in 2015. For myself I hear the words “Change!” Change is coming and this scares the hell out of me.. quite literally.  I believe for many this is the same. Change is coming. At first we look back at 2013 and 2014 and we think, BRING IT ON, I am soooooo ready for it but what happens is when we are actually faced with “change” we want to throw one of those `silent but deadly` tantrums and decide life is better with what is known than what is unknown so we stay comfortable and retreat from change.
The word CHANGE has been so big in my heart for 2015, that I looked up the word in the dictionary. This is the meaning: To transform or convert.
If we would but embrace this Change that is coming (as scary as it may be), our lives are about to be transformed. There is hope! If we would embrace this scary but much-needed change that is calling us for 2015, maybe it would be the much-needed rest we need for our lives. That if we would cling to this change that seems so overwhelming and paralyzing, that it would be the change needed for us to lay down in the warmth of the sun and finally be able to rest again. I am not saying it’s going to be easy but I am thinking that it is needed for you and for me. We were created and designed to be able to change, therefore we have the ability within in us to embrace it!
I know 2014 has been a rough year for so many. My prayer for you is that you would be able to rest again, breathe again, move on past deep hurts, laugh again and to finally be able to rest.

Get ready for change (it`s a good thing remember) in 2015. Happy New Year!

Now that I got your attention with that epic title for my blog today, I have a few questions to ask you:

When you think of God, what do you think?

If you were to describe God, how would you describe him?

If you were to talk about His personality, what would you say?

If I were to ask you how He makes you feel, what would your answer be?

These questions have been rolling around in my mind the last few days. It was spurred on by a movie I watched that discussed God. It discussed how different people see God in many different ways, but very rarely do we see God as loving.

The Bible clearly says that He is Love. That He is the best dad anyone could ask for (of course that is my paraphrase). It says He gives good gifts to His children. It says He watches over us every minute of everyday. It says that He makes a way for us where we seem to have lost our way. He sings over us. He dances over us. Above all, He loves us so deeply and so much more than we can imagine.

Here is where things seem to have gone wrong. It seems that we have bought this belief that all of the above MAY be true but ONLY if we are living an absolutely perfect life. We believe that only when we have every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed can we receive the love that God has for us.

I am probably putting words in God’s mouth (okay I am) when I say this but I am sure this makes Him sad.

I think of a natural father who from the moment his child is born, everything in his life changes. He suddenly becomes a defender, a protector, a help, a strength, and God help the person who tries to hurt his baby in any way. He becomes proud of every achievement, every minor detail, and every milestone. He becomes sad with every cry and pained with every hurt or worried about any illness. He provides for his children. He would lay down his life for his child.

The Bible says that He is that kind of Father but yet so much more. So when did our thinking change? When did we start thinking that God’s love was conditional?

Unconditional means with no conditions or limitations: complete or guaranteed, with no conditions, limitations, or provisos attached.

That is exactly what God’s love is toward us. His love is limitless, its guaranteed.

We have to get back to the understanding of the Love of the Father. We need to come to terms that there is nothing that can separate us from this Love.

Do you think you need to believe in God to be loved by him?
NOPE.
Do you think you need to be living a perfect life to be loved by him?
NOPE

Do you think you need to be a church goer to be cared for and watched over by him?

NOPE

This isn’t just something I believe, this is what the BIBLE says. So the beauty of this is that whether or not you believe in the same thing I do or not… the truth of the matter is that you are just plain and simply LOVED, CARED FOR, WATCHED OVER.

As Christians I feel we have walked away from this fundamental principle that is laid out hundreds of times in the Bible. That we are loved. Just that simple. You are loved. You are loved. You are loved.

As I began this deep thought process of God’s love I could feel my head spinning at times. This love is so deep that really its hard to wrap your mind around.

We really need to get back to this. We need to search our hearts and see where our belief lies. Is it in the unconditional love of God or is it in an angry God who places conditions on his love depending on how well we measure up to him.

The reality is that this belief affects everything. It affects the way we worship. It affects how we pray. It affects our time spent with him (if we even end up spending time with him), it affects how we see other people. It affects how we see ourselves.

I say that because why on earth would we get excited about worshipping someone who we think doesn’t really like us that much. Why would we want to spend time with someone who we think is judging our every step and why in the world would we want to tell people about God or spread that kind of love with anyone.

I guess what I am saying is we need to search our hearts, search what it is we believe, because what we believe is going to spill out into our everyday lives. I could tell you this until I am blue in the face that God loves you, but if you don’t believe it, then it can’t change you and what you believe will spill out into your everyday life.

We can’t affect a city for God if we actually believe that God is a jerk. People don’t want that God and in all actuality that’s the God they have been rejecting for years.

The world is harsh and hurtful. They don’t need more judgement. We don’t need more judgement. We need to know the real tangible love of God.

If I could tell you anything today it would be this: You are loved. There is no set of strange rules you have to obtain to be accepted by Him. There is nothing more and nothing less that you could do to change the way He feels about you. This love is real. It’s not a myth. Stop, please stop, trying to earn His love. That’s exhausting. Just breathe, relax, and accept this simple truth: God is love. It’s who He is.

 

Here is a reminder and some proof for you about what the Bible says on God’s love for you:

Romans 8:38

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:  I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus has embraced us.

Have you ever been told a promise but it never came true? Have you ever known that something in your life was supposed to happen but obstacle and hardship came at you and caused you to give up on that promise? Have you ever had a dream so BIG and you knew from the very depths of you that you were to obtain that dream, but you continue to fight with everything you got, and still no dream come true, no happily – ever – after – fairytale ending?

I hear ya!!

It was probably ten years ago, Jaret and I lived in our first house and Chalei, my daughter, would have been about three years old. Jaret and I had always been undecided about whether or not we wanted more children and even if we did, we couldn’t decide on the right timing. It was one night, that I sat on my black leather couch engrossed in some meaningless novel that I suddenly had a thought cross my mind. This thought was so loud and so clear that it made me shut my book and run and talk to Jaret. The thought was, “You are going to have a son and his name will be Judah!” Honestly, it was so real; it was so vivid that no one could tell me otherwise. At that very moment, I believed it. I knew it. Jaret on the other hand, well he thought I was crazy, but that was no discouragement to me. I KNEW I would have a son and his name would be Judah.
Heck, you are all probably thinking I am crazy right now.

It was probably a week later, that some random person we didn’t know came up to us and told us that we would have a son. I kid you not I yelped when I heard that. Okay, not yelped like a dog, maybe I squealed, but gosh, not like a pig. Some sort of noise escaped from my mouth because it was confirmation that I was certainly NOT CRAZY. That was enough to make Jaret believe what I told him about our Son to be true.

In the months that followed, even though I was not pregnant, I could see that baby boy and I loved that baby. It was a dream and it felt real. It made me so happy when I thought about him; nothing and no one could convince me of anything different.

It took me awhile to get pregnant, I think at least 6 to 12 months, but I remember the moment that I was. It quite literally was a DREAM COME TRUE. I was a working at a nail salon at the time, I had quite a large client  base as a nail technician and I told everyone, I MEAN EVERYONE. I was beyond excited, the promise I was given was coming true. I remember the moment we told Chalei, she was over the moon happy. One night as she was brushing her teeth, she was singing into her toothbrush this cute little song that she was going to be a sister. Honestly, at that moment, our very dreams were coming true. I talked to that baby, I sang to that baby, and I prayed over that baby.

It was a couple of months later that I began to bleed. I remember thinking that this wasn’t real, that I was PROMISED this baby, so therefore I was going to be okay. I went to the doctor and he ordered an ultrasound and I had to wait the weekend to hear anything back. I continued to bleed but I held onto hope.

Monday morning came and I knew in my heart of hearts that the baby in my womb was gone but I refused to believe that I had lost that little promise.

Jaret and I were sitting in the doctor’s office as my doctor walked into the room. I could tell by the look on his face that everything was NOT OKAY. He told me this line about how these things happen and maybe there was something wrong with the baby and that I could always try again, but the baby was gone. I sat there looking at the doctor and watching him talk but hearing nothing else he had to say. I was telling myself not to cry and not to break down in front of the doctor, but on the inside I was already breaking down. I clenched my jaw and held my lips as stiff as I could all the while choking back the sting of the outburst of tears that were trying to escape me.

Jaret and I thanked the doctor and I hopped off the doctor’s bed and promptly headed for the door. I kept saying to myself, “Hold it together, Hold it together, and just make it to the car.” The moment my hand hit the door handle and I jumped inside was the moment the deep sobs I had been so masterfully holding in came pouring out in what seemed like a violent outpouring. Those sobs came from a place so deep within me; a place I didn’t even know existed. We sat in our vehicle and I just poured out my heart and cried out my eyes on the loss of our child, the loss of what seemed like my promise; the loss of what I thought was a dream come true.

I had to work that day, so I had Jaret call my co workers and tell them what had happened and that I would be coming in but not to mention anything to me as I would try to hold it together.
I took two deep breaths and opened the doors to the salon I worked at, sat at my desk with my first client. As luck would have it, my client (who shared in my excitement for being pregnant), said, “So, have you chose a theme for your babies room?” She didn’t know any better and I didn’t have the strength to discuss what had just happened to me, so I pretended it didn’t happen. I made light of the question and did my best to carry on. My whole day continued like that, all things babies. With every conversation and every question it was like a knife going deeper and deeper into an already raw wound.

I made it home and I felt numb and emotionally drained. I sat in front of my fireplace and just stared. It was about an hour when I finally succumbed to the grief that I was feeling and like a dam that had just broke, those sobs began to pour and pour out of me. Jaret sat there helpless. There wasn’t anything he could do. There wasn’t anything anyone could do.

I moved on. I stopped crying. I stopped wondering why. I stopped blaming myself. I stopped looking for someone to blame. I also stopped doing something else. I stopped DREAMING.

I closed my heart to the possibility of having another baby. If I was truthful with myself, the pain was WAY too much and in all reality I did not want to feel that again. Jaret and I talked about having another and I talked about it with people, but in the deepest parts of me, I already knew that the dream was long gone and I was moving past that.

I think if I was really honest with myself, I think I might have believed that I was given the dream of my heart, but something or somehow it died. I had no answer to how or why, it was just over. I didn’t need to be excited for it to come to pass anymore. In my mind, the dream did come to pass and then it died and now it was gone; it was over.

That is what I told myself anyway, because for 5 years, I thought about Judah. I thought about having a son. I wouldn’t allow myself to think about it for long though, because the possibilities hurt way too much.

I remember sitting in a church service and a man was speaking. He said something that awakened the dream of having a son. He said, “God gives you promises because He knows there will be a fight for you to attain it. So, He gives you the promise so you have something to hold on to through the battle.” That spoke to the very depths of my heart where I had closed off the dream of having a son.

I began to dream again and Jaret and I conceived. I remember the fear that came over me as I read the positive pregnancy stick. I wanted to take it all back. I wanted to run for fear that I would live that nightmare all over again.

The morning after we found out that I was pregnant, Jaret came to me and asked, “What’s our sons name again?” There was no doubt in his mind and no doubt in mine what was happening, the dream that I had lost was being re-birthed in our hearts once again. I replied, “Judah Eli!” Jaret said, “that’s right, Judah Eli, our son.”

Our ultrasound was booked for the five month mark of my pregnancy. It was the time where we found out what the sex of the baby was going to be. This time was different though because I knew that knew there was to be a Judah Eli in our house, we were a little afraid that the technician would say it was a girl. We believed so strongly in this ‘dream’ that if she said it was a ‘girl’, then that would mean we would be having more children until our ‘Judah’ was born.

The ultrasound confirmed it was a boy, and a few months later our, Judah Eli, was born. I can’t explain to you the feeling as I held him in my arms. He wasn’t any more special than Chalei was to us, but he was a dream that we thought had died, but now had come true. It was a dream fulfilled. It was a dream that cost us a lot of tears, a lot of fighting, and a lot of pain.

As I was thinking about this today, I began to think about the deepest dreams of our hearts. How many of us have dreams in our heart that we have fought so hard for but something happened or multiple things happened that caused us so much pain that we gave up and we let the dream die or maybe we thought the dream was never meant to be. Then, every time we even let ourselves think about that dream we stop ourselves because the pain or the fear is too great, we stop ourselves. I get it! I really do! I have more than my share of “Judah” stories, where I have stopped myself from dreaming because the fight seemed too big or the “Nay Sayers” told me it wouldn’t work, or I just plain gave up.

Here is my thought on all of this: What if I was given the dream and given the promise because God knew that I would walk through hardship? What if He gave me the promise so that when I lost that baby I would still have something to hold on to? Do you get what I am saying? I am saying that, God knows every moment of every day before it happens and  if YOU have a dream or a promise, it was given to you because God knew you would have a fight on your hands. He gave you that dream because He promised it would be fulfilled but you would need to hold on to that dream until it happened. He knew there would be a series of events that would happen and He knew you needed a promise and a dream to hold on to. He gave you this dream and this promise because He didn’t want you to give up on it!

All of us have a dream; I would bet money on it. Don’t let those dreams die because they are too painful or too hard to fight for. Awaken those dreams and let’s begin to fight again for them. You are a fighter! I am a fighter! We can do this!

I dare you to DREAM AGAIN!

Last week I was having a conversation with my husband. It was late one night, the kids had gone to bed and Jaret and I got our pens, papers, and calculators out and began to do a budget. We became somewhat sidetracked and began to discuss all the things we wanted to have and wanted to get. The list was something like this: New house, new truck, new motorbike, new tires with rims for car, new deck, new fence, hot tub. I am sure the list could have gone on but that was the jest of it. As we were discussing this we suddenly were becoming very depressed by our money situation and annoyed by the fact that we didn’t have enough money and we needed to make more money. We became more irritated as we talked with each other as well as became resentful of our lives at the moment. The way we were talking was as though we had nothing. We went to bed that night feeling very frustrated and actually bitter towards the situation we were in.

I woke up the next morning and was getting ready for work still feeling very resentful towards our current situation. We weren’t going broke, we weren’t in a bad financial state but it was the fact that we felt we deserved all of these ‘things‘ right now and it was that state that made us feel as though we were broke.

I am really telling on myself now and wish I could have begun writing this post as a story about a “friend” I knew Ha Ha. Even as I write this, I fully realize what a spoiled brat I sounded like. I do believe I needed a good slap. How embarrassing this is even to let you in to a space in my head (heart) that had become quite ugly. Oh well, I continue on.

That morning I was driving to work in vehicle I bought a year ago. I was remembering how happy I was to buy that car. I had previously been driving an SUV that looked nice on the outside but for years I knew that at any given moment it could just fall into a thousand pieces. It felt so unsafe to drive. Then I began to think of where Jaret and I first started out. I drove a crappy car that had more than one problem with it (99 problems and the car had all of them). The windshield wipers didn’t work and in the winter we would have to stop on the side of the highway and throw snow onto the windshield so we could clean it off or in the summer pull over to side of road until the rain subsided just to enough to be barely visible enough to drive. The brakes were shot and the car made the worst sound every time you came to a stop. The car blew out huge puffs of black smoke every time you took off. Seriously, this car had seen better days but we couldn’t afford anything better and we definitely couldn’t afford to fix it. We never bought new clothes, we could barely afford groceries let alone any ‘perks’. There were days I went without coffee because that was a luxury (GASP!!!!). I remember the days that we would be so excited to be able to get a slush from the corner store and on a good day we could rent a movie.

So, as I was driving to work that morning, I began to mentally slap myself. I suddenly had taken on the belief that I constantly needed to be striving for bigger and better. Now, don’t get me wrong I do believe in DREAMING BIG and working towards those goals but not at the expense of losing your thankfulness. I began to take inventory on my life. I have a beautiful house; a house that at one time was a dream and not a reality. I have a car that I still love and feel completely safe in. I have a beautiful family and we seldom go without. I realized that somewhere along the way, I lost my thankfulness for everything I had been given. I bought into the commercialism of this age. I bought into the “keeping up with the Jones” mentality. I bought into the reward of ‘getting‘ instead of the reward of ‘giving‘. This is what began to drive me.

My friends, if we live life like that, we will never be happy because we will never have enough. I realized how far God had brought me and how much I had been given. I realized that I needed to find my thankfulness again. As I recalled all these things that morning in my short drive to work I began to be thankful again. I could finally see just how blessed I was and how I actually wasn’t broke at all. The very moment that I began to find my thankfulness, was the moment I felt peace settle down around me. I became happy again. You know it’s crazy that being ungrateful and unthankful steals your joy away too.

We can get our priorities so out of whack by comparing what others have with what we don’t. Trying to arrive at some destination to which we think we will FINALLY be happy.

Reality is: There is no amount of possessions that will finally make us ARRIVE at happiness; it’s when we become THANKFUL for every moment, every blessing, and all our surroundings that we FINALLY ARRIVE.

Stay thankful, My Friends!!

Last night we had awards night for the school my daughter attends which is also the same school I teach at. I teach the Performing Arts to a group of teenage girls and boys. I have been doing it for longer than my daughter has been in school. I have my up’s and down’s, or should I say, love/hate relationship with teaching this class. It takes so much committment, time, and work. Sometimes, this leaves me wondering why I do this (I am just being honest).

My ‘why’s’ are always put to rest when I see one of my students up there performing. To the average eye, that teenager looks like they have been singing or acting for years as they portray so much confidence, but I know what it took for them to get there. I know it took hours and hours of work, memorization, and practicing. Then, it took fighting the fear and the voices that tell you that you aren’t good enough. What the other people don’t see was the hour I spent with that student as they fought fear of failure and fought back the tears of disbelief in themself.

Then it’s all worth it when I see them standing up there doing there absolute best performance and when they come off that stage, it’s the look that they give me of pure delight in themselves in what they have just accomplished. There is nothing, I repeat nothing like that moment shared between one of the students and I.

Last night was a beautiful night to be apart of and watch as all the students received awards and smiled and laughed with each other. There was one moment that I was apart of that meant the world to me. I was sitting at a table and the teenage girls came up to me and asked for pictures with me. I was so surprised and gladly took part.

I know that it doesn’t seem like much, but as I was going to bed last my heart was so full. I reminisced over all the years I have taught, all the students I have sat down with, and all of the off-key singing, horrible memory work, and bad acting rehearsals I have sat through. I remembered how many times I have complained about teaching. It was like I suddenly came to the realization that I had viewed this situation all wrong. I was looking at it like something I had to do and give of myself without anything in return. It was that attitude that stopped me from the blessing that God was so freely given me.

The Bible calls our children a blessing. How favored am I to be able to spend every week with a whole group of them? I get to see their good, bad, and their ugly. I get to spend a day a week with them goofing off and acting like a 14-year-old girl all over again. I get to reenact Beyoncé’s “All the Single Ladies” dance with a room full of teenagers, just because we want to. I get to rap the “Fresh Prince of Belair” theme song a million times on the fly because they like it. Most importantly, I get to watch a big group of amazing teenagers become world changers. What is so amazing is God let me be apart of that. I have looked at it so wrong, it’s not just me teaching them, but it’s also me learning from them and being blessed by them.

In my time of reflection last night as I lay in my bed, I thought of that verse that says, “Let no one despise you of your youth.” I teach the students this verse all the time. I tell them that they can touch someone’s life just has well as a minister who has been speaking for years. The thought occurred to me though, if they don’t see that I can learn from them or that they can speak a word that could change my life… do I make that verse null and void to them? I realized that I have always thought of the kids as “My students” and that they could only learn from me. Reality is that I could learn from them as well. Yes, I am still their teacher but there are little nuggets in each day with them that teach me things. I am so grateful for this. I am so grateful for the moments I am able to spend with them. I am so grateful for the chance to teach and be taught. This next generation is something to look out for…. they are going to do AMAZING THINGS.

The greatest of these…..

I just simply cannot get this one word out of head lately. It seems every conversation I have, every situation I encounter, every argument, every everything!!! This one word that won’t leave me alone. I swear, Its like this one word has it in for me or something. However, the more I hear the word ring in my head the more I feel it change something in me. It literally arrests my thoughts, and as mad as I get when I hear it, the more I know its truth and it’s the only way to live.
I can just see you all reading this as fast as possible to get to the part where I tell you what that word is. Well, the word is simple, its LOVE.

Such a beautiful word that makes you think of sugar and spice and all things nice, but I have to say, the more I think about this word, the more mad I become at it.

I can see your heads on tilt right now. What kind of insane human being would become even the slightest bit agitated at the beautiful and graceful word called, LOVE. I mean hasn’t she heard the song “All we need is love” by the Beatles, or how about “Love can build a bridge” by the Judds (that’s a true classic).I do question myself being slightly delusional but I came across this simple verse that has been one of my all time fave’s forever. Many people around the world quote verses from this Chapter in reference to many things.

Its, I Corinthians 13. The verse that talks about love being patient and kind, remember it? I have heard so many of us (myself included) talk about this being their FAVE verse in the Bible.
It all happened one day when I came across the verse and actually began to read it for what it said. I began to read the part where it said, “Love is ever ready to believe the best of everybody.” That part jumped out at me and I am pretty sure hit me with great force on the head or in the heart, either way it hurt.

Let’s think about this for a minute…..

Do I believe the best about someone when I have heard they have been talking about me? Do I believe the best about someone when I have heard things about them that sheds them in a ‘not so great’ light? Do I believe the best about the guy who comes up to me begging for money? Is that what that verse means? Yes, that’s exactly what that means.

Then there’s the part that says, “Love keeps no record of wrong done to it.”

So, does that mean that when I have had an argument with my husband, I have no right to keep a record of it? Does that mean that the hundreds of times we all have been legitimately hurt, we have no right to keep record of it? What if it’s one person who keeps continually hurting me, do I still have no right to hold it against them, forever? Does that mean that we have to love those people anyway? Yes, that’s exactly what that means.

What about the part where it says, “Love is not rude.”

Does that mean that when I am driving and someone cuts me off I can’t give them the ‘death stare’ as I drive past? Does that mean that when I am in a store and the person working the counter is giving less than great customer service, I can’t be rude? Does that mean that when someone is being rude to me that I can’t be rude right back? Yes, that’s exactly what that means.

I could go on, but do you see why this “Love” word is hurting so much? In the last few weeks, I have had so many opportunities to lash out, to hold grudges, but what rings in my head is “You Love!” Immediately, I am taken back to that whole chapter that lays out exactly how I am to conduct my life. I am not going to lie, my thought usually is, “THIS SUCKS!” I want to hold a grudge. I want to show them how hurt they made me. Heck, I want to hurt them back. I want to close my heart off to them forever, but I can’t, LOVE wont let me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect at this, not even close, but I’m trying. I am trying to look at the heart of people. Look at the worth of people.

I mean, reality is, we are all people who have been hurt and sometimes operate out of our own hurt. The one thing that stands the test of time is, WE ALL NEED LOVE!

The more I take the time to think on Love, the more my eyes are opened to the possibility of what Love can do.

What if instead of telling the cashier how unimpressed I am with her service, I looked at her and asked her how her day has been and then wished her a better day?

What if instead of me waiting for the apology I felt I so greatly deserved from a friend, that I called them first and told them I loved them and was sorry if I caused them hurt?
What if instead of telling the beggar on the street to “get a job”, I reached in my pocket and handed them a dollar?

What if it just took that one moment to change a life?

I write this to challenge whoever reads this, that the next time you are so inclined to be angry, or to judge, or to make the decision to lash out, may you hear the words ring in your head, “YOU LOVE!”

I CORINTHIANS 13, goes on to say that faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love. Love is the key. Love is a language everyone speaks and everyone understands. You want to be a world changer? Let’s begin to Love, really love, each other.

I Corinthians 13Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].

8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy ([d]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].