How To Love God

How do you show someone love? Isn't love just something that comes naturally? You don't have to put any thought into it, it's all about how you feel, right?

Yes, I guess love can be feeling, but it's so much more than just a feeling. When you love someone how do you show them that you love them?

By serving them. By learning all you can about them so you know what pleases them. Spending time with that person and communicating well with them.

So love is actually an action and the feeling comes with the action. With this in mind how can we love God? We can try to chase after the feeling of being loved by God but when days come when we don't feel the love we will be confused and find ourselves left alone and discontent with our life.

As we purpose each day to meditate on God's word we are showing God love. When we spend time studying God's word we are spending time with God and we can learn about how we can please Him. The beautiful thing is that as we do this, God will fill us with the love and joy we long for. But we must follow through with the actions and trust in God and He will supply the feeling.

To love God is to love His word. 

It's truly a beautiful thing when we can learn to love God in this way. I want to be like the psalmist in psalm 119:97 when he cried out saying "Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation day and night."

Sharing Love One Leaf at a Time

I know fall officially started last month, but it really hasn't felt like fall until, well, about right now. The cooler weather has finally come!  And so has the beautiful color change in all the leaves on the trees.

Less than ten minutes away from where I live there is a neat place called Apple Hill.  If fall was a place you could go and visit it would be this place.  You can go and enjoy beautiful vista's while you munch on delicious apple pastries, and, my favorite, caramel apples!  

Since we live so close to this wonderful place I'm sad to say we hardly ever visit.  But today we packed a picnic lunch spent a lovely afternoon at one of the Apple Hill Farms.  As we were walking around looking at all the craft booths I started picking up all the pretty leaves I spotted on the ground. Soon I had a nice collection of fall leaves in many beautiful shades of yellow, red and orange.  An idea popped into my head and I took my marker and wrote little notes on each of the leaves I collected.

I wrote things like "Smile", and "you are loved", and "happy fall".  I also made a leaf pun; "I be-leaf in you".  

Next was the fun part.  As we were walking around I kept my eye's peeled for the perfect spot to place each leaf.  I looked for a spots that were out of the way enough so the leaves would not be stepped on, but I also didn't want the leaves to be hidden.  

Before long  my hands were empty and each leaf found a new home.  My sister even put one leaf inside one of the apple crates in the store.

I don't know if anyone will find these leaves, or if the wind will claim them.  Maybe they will get trampled on and forgotten.   But I hope that these leaves at least make one person smile. 

It was so much fun spreading love around in this unique way! My sister and I have decided to do this again on our next outing to Apple Hill.

The Blessings of Being Single on Valentine's Day

Being a single girl on Valentine's Day is tough. We want to ignore this holiday until we find that special someone to spend it with. Everywhere we go we are reminded of this day that celebrates love.  From ads that pop up while your online, friends who are in a relationships, or even just walking through the Valentine's Day aisle at the grocery store full of gushy Valentine's candy. It's as if everywhere we go we are constantly reminded of the love that we as singles are 'missing out' on.

Valentine's Day has never really had much meaning to me. When I was little it was a fun day when you get to give candy to your friends, but receiving candy was the best part. Valentines Day has also been a day to have fun with my girlfriends who are also single. I dream about the day when I will have that special someone to buy me flowers and make me feel loved. Then, when my dreams finally come true, this will be a holiday I will always look forward to.

If your single this Valentine's Day, I challenge you to have a different perspective. Too often we fall into the world's way of thinking that if were just in a relationship we'd be happy. If we could just find our 'happily ever after' all would be well. But the truth is, we would still be unhappy and discontent even if we had this.

When our happiness depends on the things of this world we will never be satisfied. The happiness we get from the world is fleeting and only leaves us desiring more. True happiness and contentment can only be found in having a relationship with God.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

With this in mind, as we think about Valentine's Day, don't feel sorry for yourself for being single. In fact, Valentine's Day for us single girls should be an extra-special day. We, unlike women in a relationship, can give ourselves wholly to God on this day. Our king, who loves us more than any man ever could, sent His own Son to die that we might live. He longs for us to spend time with Him that He might shower down upon us His love.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

One of my favorite aspects about Valentine's Day that I dream about is receiving love letters from the one I love. Even though we may have to wait for the Lord's timing in writing our love story, we don't have to miss out on receiving love letters on this special day, because our King has written to us the most beautiful love letter. God's Word is often times viewed as a handbook that is full of the dos and don'ts of this life. But God's Word is so much more to us. In the Bible we find God's promises and His declaration of His love for us.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39

God's love letters to us is not just for Valentine's day, but for everyday in our lives.

So, this Valentine's Day, we can rejoice in being single because we already have the best love story we could ask with a God whose love for us is never ending. Our love story with God is the 'happily ever after' our hearts have always longed for.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness." Jeremiah 31:3

This Valentine's Day, spend it with the one who loves you with an everlasting love - God. His love can never be compared to any earthly love.

As I end, I just have to say how ironic it is that Valentine's Day this year is on a Sunday. How perfect that we get to spend this day in the house of God, worshiping Him and learning more about His great love for us.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I Belong to God ~ Poem

I really what to be active in my blog and keep posting often.  These past few day's I've been brainstorming ideas of what I could post.  I would love to do another tutorial but I've been so busy lately.  I don't plan on my life slowing down in the next few months either.  At this time of the year I have a lot of things on my plate so it's hard for me to find the time to write, or create something with my hands.  

Then I came across this poem I wrote a few years ago. I don't normally write poems but I have tried a few times.  I probably broke most, if not all the rules of poetry.  And I know there are rules to poetry, I took a class on poetry one year. 

Anyway, here is my poem.  I won't criticize myself anymore and I'll let you decide for yourself what you think.   I need to not say anymore or else I might decide not to post this ;)

I Belong to God

by Sydney R

My heart isn't mine

It belongs to God

So let me treasure it

I won't give it to just anyone

I will wait patiently

Until I meet the right man

Then I will present it to him

Pure and spotless as it is

My life isn't mine

It belongs to God

So let me live for Him

I won't settle for anything less

I will serve God

Until the day I die

Then I will go to heaven

And meet Him face to face

I hope this poem encourages you to wait patiently for love to find you in God's perfect timing and for you to live every day of your life for God.

Love ~ The First Fruit of the Spirit

Well, another week has passed and a new one begins.  Seems all the things I couldn't fit into last weeks agenda are on this weeks and I will probably end up finding some silly excuse not to do them.
That's life.  At least for me.  

So, I thought I'd get a head start on my list of things to do tomorrow and post the next part in my Fruit of the Spirit series. Any idea what the first fruit of the spirit is?  HINT:  the picture above is a dead giveaway.  Yep, Love.  So let's talk about love.

Love (The Sacrifice of Self) – Love is too often mistaken for a feeling.  All the romance movies and romance novels promoted by the world have given us an unrealistic view of love. Yes, love is a feeling but it is so much more than just a feeling. One thing you will learn about the Fruit of the Spirit is that every fruit is a decision and love is no different.  We can choose to love others or we can choose not to.  We, as Christians, are to choose to love. No matter how we feel it is our duty to share God's love with others. We are to love others when we are tired or sick.  We are to love everyone, even those who don't give us any love back in return. And here's the hard one. We are to love our enemies. The Bible doesn't only say to love our enemies but it also tells us pray for our enemies.

Love is an action, not just words. Words aren't the only way to share God's love with others. You can tell someone you love them in so many ways. You don't have to say those three coveted words, "I love you," in order to let someone know that you love them.  By serving others, even when it's hard, you are showing them love. And serving others can be as easy as cleaning up after someone or making them a meal.  Believe it or not these small acts of kindness are sending a message to the person that you care about them and that you love them.

And you must remember that this kind of love is impossible without God's help. Our devotion to God is outwardly displayed when we love others. You cannot love God and somehow not love others. God is love and He has created us to be currents for His love to travel through. Once we are filled with God's love we won't be able to conceal it and the whole world will see God's love shining through us.