Love Covers All

....One picture is worth a thousand words. Love what an awesome little word. Love covers a multitude. There’s that place where we would love to travel to, that special piece of clothing we love to wear. Some have a favorite color they love. Or they might say, "I love that color on you, it brings out the color in your eyes." I believe that the Lord speaks to us through scriptures, through nature, through song and especially through people, if we have the ears to listen. Spiritual ears. Have you ever been side swiped, not in a car, but by a question? I’ll get back to this thought later. Sunday night, my wife and myself attended a worship service. What a blessing that was. There were only a handful of young people in worship, no message, just closed eyes praising God. In Love with their creator. It’s not that often as an older generation worshiper I get an invitation to sit in on a junior youth worship service and reignite something in my own spirit. Let me encourage you when the invitation presents itself again, you accept it. So midway through the week our church junior youth service was open to all ages, and once again I saw a generation in worship, in love. There was a freedom that was present at both services. (Almost like a first love) Those of us that have been married for some time, I am sure you can remember your first date. How, when you had to walk up the pathway and knock on your sweethearts door. If you were like me your heart was racing and beating so loud that you would think the people around you could here it. You were probably really nervous. Right? When you were first in Love you were so full of ... let's call it faith. If you were like me, you had some pretty big decisions to make. I'm not sure why those decisions as big as they were came easy. So why do the little decisions so much later on in life take so long to decide? Do you ever just sit and shake your head and ask yourself what was I thinking? Every once in a while you will be given a gift, and if your heart and your ears are listening you will receive the gift. My gift came when an elderly couple from my church shared with me the love that I could see in them for each other. What a privilege, to be invited into their life, as they held hands. My sideswipe question came form my mom. She wanted to know if I still love my wife the way I used to? After 33 years together, my nerves have subsided a little, but my heart still beats loud. We’ve become more one, we’ve raised a family and lived a life together. Yes. Sometimes the older we get, the smaller our step. This could be a physical step or a spiritual step, either way you have to take it. Sometimes a little reminder of the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, is just the reminder we need. We can get side swiped in more ways than one. Satan wants to take you out. He loves to attack families. His main goal is to confuse you, take you off track, and trip you up.
1 Peter 5:8 Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
Proverbs 24:13-16 13 Eat honey, dear child - it's good for you - and delicacies that melt in your mouth. 14 Likewise knowledge, and wisdom for your soul - Get that and your future's secured, your hope is on solid rock. 15 Don't interfere with good people's lives; don't try to get the best of them. 16 No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don't stay down long; Soon they're up on their feet, while the wicked end up flat on their faces. Log-ON

Pivotal Moments

PIVOTAL MOMENTS … We all have them: our birth, our school years, our teen years… to finding that someone that completes us, learning together how to raise a family, to sitting with an aging parent. I’ve had to realize that I’m getting older; something that I don’t like to admit to, but have no control over. When did the roles change? I can remember as a young boy going for a Sunday drive with my family, and my Grandad, my dad’s father. My dad would drive, with his dad sitting in the front passenger seat beside him, and the rest of the family would be in the back. That would be my mom, two sisters, myself of course, and on special occasions my mom’s mom, my grandmother. Just so you get the picture, we owned mini cooper, a Mr. Bean type car only ours was a station wagon. My Grandad, was in my eyes, an old Irish gentleman. He was a small frame of a man. He always wore a suit and tie, and a rimmed hat. He smoked a pipe that he was forever lighting with long wooden matches. He was a widower from the time I knew him. It’s funny some of the things we remember. I also remember seeing him kneeling beside his bed praying. I think I know now what he must have been praying for. This past Sunday my pivotal moment came. I was the grandad in the front passenger seat beside my son, while the rest of my family sat in the back. For the first time, I realized the roles have changed, and I am getting older. Oddly enough we were going to visit my mom. Her role has changed, and she is now more dependent on me, at this stage in her life. Heritage or history, whatever we call it, we all have one. There are times in my own history that I’m not proud of. There are also times that amaze me. Being blessed with a good wife, raising 3 kids. Bringing the little ones home from the hospital, really we didn’t even know what to expect. Now these same little ones are seeking a career, flying to exotic places, and raising little ones of their own. History starts in your own home. I believe if we change a generation, we will change history. Legacy is connected through generations, and you can change your family’s history, and leave a lasting legacy. Whatever way you want to say it: season, time, road traveled, it all comes down to the same thing-a place in your life. You have a choice daily. You can change history, and in doing so, you will leave a legacy that will last forever. Inheritance-this is the big one. What do you inherit from past history? Or if you’re still alive, what are your actions doing to your history, and what outcome will they have on your legacy? Little things impact us more than the big stuff. My Grandad kneeling beside his bed praying, the importance of a Grandmother taking her grandaughter to church, my own mom as she hugs me goodbye, saying God Bless. Inheritances: it’s not about the material stuff, it’s about the love and care, it’s about the things of the spirit. This next part is taken from the Bible. Believers all over the world and throughout time have found peace and rest for their spirit in the words written in these pages. The time is a different time, the place is a different place, the names may not be yours but they could be. I believe our spirit longs for something more, I also believe through time, history and generations we are still connected.
2 Timothy 1, 2:7
2 It is written to Timothy, my dear son. May God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace. 3 Timothy, I thank God for you. He is the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again. 5 I know that you sincerely trust the Lord, for you have the faith of your mother, Eunice, and your grandmother, Lois. 6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
Log- On