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Free the Love

On Mt Soledad in La Jolla, CA


I love the Lord. He's the best listener, hearing my prayers day after day, year after year. He loved me first, and now my life is one long thank-you note back to God. "I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live." (Psalm 116:1-2)

I love my Norman H. Taylor, and I love him freely, richly, deeply. I wasn't just mouthing the words when we said our wedding vows over 30 years ago. We've seen better, worse, richer, poorer, sickness, health, and God has sustained us through it all. We are different, but yet we are one. "And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh." (Mark 10:8) I've learned from my widow friends (including my widowed Mom) to love my Norman without reservation.

Family vacation in Pensacola, FL

I love my children: Austen, Hillary, and Collin. They are as unique as gemstones, and they make our lives brilliantly full. We've had good days, not so good, instructions, corrections and firm rebukes, and yet God has deepened the love between us all. "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." (Psalm 127:3) It's fascinating that God refers to our children as "rewards."


Celebrating Mom's Birthday
I love my Mom, my sisters and their families. One of my nieces is sitting in a hospital room with her daughter (my great-niece), getting a broken arm mended as I write this. I am positive that my  niece is feeling great loving relief that it is just a broken bone and not something much worse. "This is my commmandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." (John 15:12)

I love my sister friends who are scattered all over this globe. One of my sister friends lives in Peru, but she may as well be next door with technology allowing us to send notes and photos with a click. Another sister friend lives in Romania, and yet another in Nigeria, and several in Mexico, and in too many other countries and states to name. I never take for granted the heart-gift of friendship. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

Life is truly a vapor, lived out in moments. We are not guaranteed a full day of heartbeats. Have you been holding back on freely loving the people in your life? God sure didn't hold back.

Free the love. Love freely.

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (I John 4:11)

www.keeptheheart.com









Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 14, 2013 at 1:13 PM

    Wow! What a great picture of true love, in all its forms! Thank you for sharing. Love is such a cheap word now, but thank you for showing it is still deep in its meaning, if we love the way we are supposed to.

    ReplyDelete

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