Does Your Love Measure Up?

Day 3

Reality Check

 ^“ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:11

Love one another. This seems like such an easy task. But how successful are we really? What standards are we using to measure our love for each other? Check out 1 John 4: 4-6 and Romans 8:5

1 John 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Romans 8:5For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

 What measurement for love are we using? God’s or the world’s? God makes a clear distinction between the world (and our flesh) and those who abide in Christ and live by the spirit. We should be living by the spirit of truth and our measurement of love should come from there as well. Go back to 1 Corinthians 13. Use your concordance or do a Google search on all the scriptures of love. Is this the love you are referring to when you “love one another”

Practice: I've often wondered what meditating meant when it came to God's Word.  It can't really mean putting my fingers together and humming.  Meditate on the verses you found in your search. Write down the verses in a journal.  What comes to your mind?  Where does the Holy Spirit lead you?  Does He convict you?  Does He prompt you to work on a specific area of your life or perhaps convict you to show true love to someone you haven't been?  Is He prodding you to memorize a verse?  Listen to the Holy Spirit and where He leads you; that's what it means to "meditate" on God's Word.  Read, wait on God, listen, talk to, think about and immerse yourself in God's Word! 

Family Activity: Create a ruler (see picture). Instead of numbers, use the definition from  1 Corinthians 13 as markers. Throughout this month when someone seems to be acting without love, ask them to measure themselves. Maybe you even want to post this on the fridge or wall somewhere as a reminder.

Did you use the family activity? How did it go, what experiences did you have? (And what ages are your kids?)

*Last day to comment and be entered into the Valentine Day Card GiveAway. You can make comments on day 1-3 and Like our post and/or FB page*

Learning Patience Can Be "Ruff"

Reality Check:

Day 2

“Love is patient, love is kind…” 1 Corinthians 13:4

Did you start today with love? If not, how about starting the day over right now!

With God it’s never too late.

I noticed recently that the definition of love from 1 Corinthians begins with patience. Why do you think that is? As a mother and a wife, I don’t have to think about that for long. God is extremely patient- that’s why it’s never too late to start over. As a mom, I am ever thankful for the reset button. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cringed after responding without love to my children or husband. I hate to even admit it, but some moments I am so overwhelmed, that I don’t stop and try to change my attitude. I think I’m justified…but in my heart, where the Holy Spirit resides, I know that I am wrong. Thankfully, God is love. And that means he is patient with me as I learn to respond with love in ALL situations!

 

Practice: Practice patience, by pretending to be patient. It sounds silly but it works. When I want to say something badly, but know I shouldn’t- I literally bite my lip to keep from opening my mouth. Having patience has a lot to do with self-control; biting my lip helps me control my urge to talk. By pretending you are a patient person, you inadvertently learn to control your reactions.

Family Activity: Dominoes is an activity that needs great patience. As you carefully set up a row of Dominoes talk about how waiting (in expectation, with a good attitude), brings about good things. Give examples on how a lack of patience can hinder good things. For example knocking down 5 Dominoes is not as much fun as 50.

Share with us what you do to practice patience!

14 Days of True Love GiveAway

I am so excited about my new series to kick off my blog! Just to get the excitement going, one lucky loved reader will win 2 handmade, Valentine cards. All you have to do is visit here between February 1st and February 3rd and make a comment on one of the 14 Days of True Love posts. For each day you comment, you get one entry into the drawing. For a bonus, like my Facebook page and be entered again!

14 Days of True Love

It's coming! Join me as we go back to the source of true love and debunk the fairy tale myth! True love beats the sugar coated candy hearts, that give a temporary high but comes down with a crash! Join me each day. starting February 1st. This journey can be taken by anyone. Whether you are single, married, parenting or not- you will want to join us!

Love Doesn't Come From Cupid

It's finally here! I hope you are as excited as I am!! For this special series the posts will look a little different. Rather than the typical theory vs reality; we will start each day with a Reality Check aka God's Word. This series will apply to anyone but if you have children, make sure you check out the Family Activity at the bottom. Use these to relate what you read in the blog to your kids (who probably aren't interested or old enough to read it ;) ) Enjoy! And don't forget to comment to be entered into the Valentine's Card Give Away!

Reality Check

“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 

1 John 4:16

The fact is that without Christ, we would be incapable of loving. ! If God is love- then the beginning of our journey would logically take us straight to him! Have you ever noticed that on the days that you start your day with prayer, Bible reading and/or devotions- things seem easier? The coffee that baby knocked on your blouse, as you walk out the door, is not quite as frustrating as it was last week when it happened. The comment your spouse made that would usually send you into a tizzy, is easily glanced over with grace. Why is that? Because when we start with God, we start with love. And when we start with love we have; patience, kindness, a lack of jealousy. We have humility and meekness, and we act with decency; we are not selfish or easily provoked; we do not take into account a wrong suffered, or rejoice in unrighteousness, but we rejoice with the truth; we are able to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. Because we know that Love never fails!

Practice: Start with love. Place a sticky note in a place you will first see when you wake up or start the day. Write a reminder to start with God, who is love and gives us the ability to love.

Family Activity: With your family, make bracelets that remind you to love always. Use “love” colors like red and pink, or letters that spell love. Talk about how God is love and that’s why we are able to love each other. Discuss the meanings of the words in 1 Corinthians 13, and give examples. (Depth of discussion will depend on age. You may also decide to focus on certain meanings more than others.)

Let Her Cry

Life In Theory: 
Research sleep methods; follow carefully; have sleeping beauties for babies and toddlers.

Life In Reality:

Let Him Cry 
By Loopy and the Mom's Wish

Let him cry, baby's tears fall down like rain
As I sing, hoping it eases all his pain
Let him lay, put him in the crib to sleep
And if he falls asleep without crying
Let him be, let him be.

(If you didn't catch it, the lyrics are a  
Hootie and the Blowfish parody
of Let Her Cry.)


Every mother's wish is that her children would sleep easily, soundly and not wake up early ;) But rarely does this happen. I have at least 4 books on the topic of sleep. I have spent countless hours scouring the internet. Sometimes it works, other times they cry. And cry. And then cry some more.

I can remember sitting in front of Styder's door, with tears streaming down my face. And every time I heard the "thump, thump, thump," wiping the tears, opening the door, picking him up and putting him back in his bed. "No honey, it's time for bed. Good night, I love you." And he would scream,"Mommy!" This went on for 3 hours.

That was the worst night but we've all been there. Cringing at the whimper, the sobs for mommy or daddy. Whether it's nap time, in the car, bedtime or because they are in time out. None of us want them to cry. It would be so much easier to swoop them into our arms, wipe their tears and pull the smile back on their face.

But we all know that we have to allow them to cry sometimes. Whether it's because we can't pull the car over (or hold them while driving), they need to learn a lesson, or they have to learn to sleep- we have to let them cry. It's part of our job description in watching over and caring for our homes and families.

I will leave you with the best advice that I have ever heard from the Baby Sleep Site. You are not making them cry, you are letting them cry. That makes all the difference to me, because if I am the cause of his tears- it's a little too tough to handle.

Proverbs 31:27 

She watches over the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.

When your ready to blow your top, go on a treasure hunt!

Life in Theory: Adjuster comes out to fix car, get quote, get check, fix car, be on my way.

 

Life in Reality: Over a month later, still waiting...

"How do you deal with anger, when there is nothing you can do about it?" I pleaded for an answer from my mother on the phone today. After not having my car for over a month because of insurance circles (on a car accident that was not even remotely my fault); I was mad. I was tired of spending hours on the phone, leaving message after message, just to be thrown in circles. No one knew the answer, no one could help....ahhhhh!!!

I'm not dealing with lost souls here, I'm not even dealing with offended souls...but the amount of anger and frustration that was is continually building was is having a serious affect on my life, my children, my attitude, my____ fill in the blank and it's probably affecting that too!

It is simple, the innocent will be condemned in the fallen world. Not just the innocent in God, but because our world is becoming more corrupt my the moment- all innocence is being stomped on. 

What do we do about it? What I should be doing instead of writing this, basking in God's word, bathing in prayer, seeking him as if he were more precious than gold. It's actually that simple- but sometimes I think we don't want it to be. We want to have something that we can claim as fixing it, but all that soothes our soul is Him- only Him! 

We have heard over and over, seek him as a treasure, but why don't we? Imagine this- A man comes to your door and hands you a map (assuming we aren't in a fallen world, and somehow know this isn't a trap ;)). He says, "this map will bring you straight to hundreds of millions of dollars in gold. All you have to do is read it each  day, it will get you there." We wouldn't stop reading that thing. We wouldn't put it down, we would not care about the dishes, the laundry would pile up, we'd have our kids reading it out loud while we made lunch, we would be memorizing the locations just in case we lost it, our life would center around it. 

That's what it means when we say to seek Him as if we were seeking after a treasure.

So what do we do? If Christ becomes our treasure and His word becomes our map... I think the things of the world, the car, the un done dishes, the socks on the floor, the ____ won't really matter because they will no longer be our focus. They become merely things, in their rightful place-just things.  

Mathew 6: 33-34  

But seek FIRST his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things 

will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, 

for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.