Happy Valentine's Day World! Today was a great day to appreciate the beautiful country I get to be in. I had the opportunity to go on a long run with my running buddies this morning and watching the sun peek over the mountains is one of the most beautiful sights I can see. I feel like it is so hard to look at nature and everything it entails and not see the hand of God all over it. It is His own love letter to us, and there definitely couldn't be a better valentine.
Valentine's day really got me thinking about what love truly is. We of course have our Hollywood version, myself being a sucker for the cheesy Hallmark movie, but I feel like God's version of love is so vastly different. I think that one of the reasons there are so many divorces is that we have lost track of what love is, We are so caught up with emotions and feelings and feeling special, that we don't realize that all the hype we think is love, is really something else entirely. Love isn't about butterflies in the stomach and gazing into each other's eyes, love is messy. Love isn't fairy tales and happily ever after...it is the hardest thing we are called to do. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13 talks a lot about what love is and at the end of this description it states that love never fails. Love never fails.....
I think a lot of us don't want to love because it makes us vulnerable. To love anything or anyone gives them power over us...the power to hurt us worse than we ever thought we could be hurt. We'd rather stick to emotions and when they are gone pack up and head out, than to love someone so much we'd be willing to give up our own happiness to ensure that they are well cared for.
I am praying that this year, God breaks open my heart a little at a time and continues to teach me what love truly is. I pray that he fills me with the love that has nothing to do with feelings, but with the love that is all encompassing and determined to fulfill the needs of others. I pray that when my students ask for directions after I've explained fourteen times or for the student who decides to wander around the room, He gives me patience and kindness and helps me to show my students that no matter what they do, I will always care and support them. I pray that when I think about love, I don't picture my cheesy Hallmark movies, but I see Jesus choosing to die the worst death imaginable to save the very people who had nailed him to the cross.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." -1 Corinthias 13:4-7
