The motive for loving is God Himself

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (in On Loving God, chapter 7 excerpts) said it well:

"The motive for loving God is God Himself.

For He is both the efficient cause as well as the final object...

He gives the occasion for love, He creates the affection.

He brings the desire...

Our present love would be vain did we not hope to love Him perfectly some day.

Our love is prepared and rewarded by His..."

[as quoted in To Live Is Christ, p. 98]

How can this inspire you to greater love today?

Choose Love

Everyday you can choose love or you can choose to be angry. Or, you can choose your pride over any love. You can also choose to fight instead of to demonstrate love. The choices are endless each day, for all the things you can do instead of love. Everyday, every circumstance gives you an opportunity to choose. Choose this day whom you will serve as Joshua challenged us (24:15).

Choose LOVE!

Do You See God in Others?

"If we do not see God in each other, it is very difficult to love." [Mother Teresa, page 292, The Joy in Loving]

When you look at people as creations of God, it changes your perspective of people.

Know they are made in their creators image. Genesis 9:6 says "for in the image of God has God made man." Psalm 100:3 says, "Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people..." Acts 17:29 says "we are God's offspring." Romans 8:16 says "we are God's children." I Corinthians 3:9 says, "we are God's fellow workers." Ephesians 2:10 says "we are God's workmanship."

So be advised, as C.S. Lewis told us, "There are no ordinary people. You have never met a mere mortal."

[The Weight of Glory, p. 46]

Your Perspective Effects Your Love

"Love is a matter of how you view life." That's what Nancy Farrier said as quoted in Love is a Verb, page 189. Gary Chapman, the author of this book, took a different view of it. He said, "Love is a perspective." (page 190)

How you view life matters.

Everything you do matters. There is nothing insignificant. Because when you understand you live before God, everything matters.

What is your perspective on life? Is it how much you can get? Is it how important your job is? Is it just to get through the day? How you see life, from your perspective matters, so try to get it right. Make love your perspective today. Look at life through the eyes of love.

Love Teaches

"Love teaches others how to love." (Nancy Farrier, in Love is a Verb, by Gary Chapman, page 190)

What are you teaching those around you?

Are you teaching others to love, or to complain, or to roll their eyes, or to stomp off in silence?

We teach others everyday by how we live, how we react, and how we act.

Today, consider your actions and words and how they teach others how to love.

Does Love Spill Out of You?

"I believe true love begins when the secret longings of our heart spills out into our lives." (page 192, Love is a Verb, quoting Jennifer Devlin)

What is spilling into your life?

What is spilling out of your life?

Matthew 12:34 says, "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."

Romans 5:15 says God's grace overflowed to us through Jesus Christ.

Paul prayed we would overflow with hope in Romans 15:13, with thanksgiving in II Corinthians 4:15, and with joy in Philippians 1:26.

Let's just hope and pray, that love will overflow from us.

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other...

I Thessalonians 3:12

"Owning" Your Love

How will you "own" your love today?

How will you take responsibility for those you are in a position to love?

To 'own' something, we need to claim it and take responsibility for it.

We have to pay the necessary price to 'own' it.

We're responsible to shelter it, care for it, and provide for it's needs.

How are you doing that with your love relationships?

Could you do a better 'job'?

How are you not providing for it's well being?

Take responsibility for loving today by owning up to it: "I love them."

Love through the pain

Mother Teresa said: "When you love 'til it hurts, there will be no hurt left, just love."

Sometimes that's more true than we want it to be. It's true, loving can hurt. But loving through the hurt, leaves you nothing but love. It's like working through the pain, to get a good work out, as a physical trainer would say. Or, pushing through labor pains to deliver a baby. At the end, you'll be left with nothing but love. Love may entail some pain, but the reward is greater.

Loving leaves a Legacy

He died suddenly, unexpectedly. She was devastated. She wrote to me in her pain and said she felt so blessed "to have been loved the way he did it."

Isn't that a beautiful testimony of someone? Someone, who loved well. When I try to comprehend her words and it's impact on her life, I envision someone who loved well: Someone who observed what was around them. Someone who declared it was good, precious and desirous. Someone who adored and appreciated. Someone who built up the other person. Someone who does these things will have loved well and have left a legacy.

Loving can involve struggling

Sheila Farmer described a successful relationship as "two people struggle to overcome their differences for the good of each other." (page 138, Love is a Verb)

You may be one of the two today that is struggling. What are you struggling with? Are you struggling with overcoming any differences so you can love another? Are you struggling to help other people? Are you fighting for another persons' good?

Today if there's a struggle, make it for the good of another. Overcome the differences to make a difference in another persons' life.

The need for love

"Every person needs to be loved." Mother Teresa (page 151, The Joy in Loving)

Don't ever forget this: Everyone needs love.

You need love. I need love.

Everyone you encounter needs love. But, what do we give everyone? It's not always love.

Remind yourself next time, that what that person in front of you needs is love, more than anything else.

Learning to Receive Love

"We learn how to love only when we first learn how to receive the love of God and others." (page 132, TrueFaced). This quote comes referring to I John 4:19. The authors go on to say, "Learning to love perfectly...is not the point, rather it's learning to receive love." (page 142)

Sometimes we focus so much on learning to love that we forget we cannot love without first recognizing and receiving love. To love, we must first accept love. We are always the receivers. Hopefully we will also be givers.

The Face of God/The Grace of God

Genesis 33:10 says, "...inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God..."

Has anyone ever thought that after seeing you, they had seen the face of God?

Oh, to be the face of God to someone...

Song of Solomon 2:14 says, "...Show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely." Isn't that what we want others, especially our loved one, to say to us?

Matthew 5:16 says, "Let your light shine...so they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

Be the face or grace of God to someone today: Love them.

A Face That Wears Love, Bears Grace

"Grace is the face that love wears, when it meets imperfection." (Joseph R. Cooke)

How many times a day do you meet imperfection? Or, perhaps better asked, how often do you encounter perfection?

Since we meet imperfection at every turn, let us face it with grace. Because when we face it with grace, we meet it with love. Let love meet imperfection ~ and there you will find perfection.

What mode is your love in?

Since I've been sick, I've just been getting through...survival mode.

Which made me think: I don't want to just survive. I want to really live, or live well, or fully.

Just as I don't want to just love, I want to love fully.

Don't let your relationships just be in survival mode, turn them into real living and loving.

Love accepts imperfection

Here's another quote my friend, Sharon, shared with me: "Love is the quiet understanding and mature acceptance of imperfection."

Here's another way of saying love and maturity is the right way to accept imperfections, not only with what we see in others, but also in what we see in ourselves.

It's a quiet understanding, it's a mature understanding.

Love doesn't demand perfection. It accepts imperfection, with love.

Loving When You Don't Feel Well

How do you love when don't feel well? It's flu season, I've got a cold, allergies are rampant...

Can I love through my weakness? Can I love in my quietness? Can I love in my pain or discomfort? Yes. There may be few words, but what's the fervor of my heart while I am 'ill disposed'? Can't I use this time to reflect? Can't I use this displacement to reconsider what I spend my time doing? Why not use this time to count my blessings?

Lord, you know I don't feel well. Use me, even here. Help me to love, even when I don't feel well.

And when I do feel better, help me to love with more fervor and more commitment.

Love Possess Me Whole

In a Charles Wesley hymn*, one line sings, "Thy love possess me whole."

Being possessed by love, is being possessed by God.

Let God have you, so His love will have you.

Ask God today, to let His love possess you - whole - all of you.

Give yourself wholly to that thought.

*Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me

How much love is in your actions?

"It's not how much you do, but how much love you put into the action."

(Page 130, Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving)

The world tells you it's how much you do and how important that work is that matters.

So, we do more, and we do more. But, that's not enough. It's not how much we do, or what we do, but how much love we put into what we do. Don't get it backwards. It won't work.

Doing Your Work With Love

"Every work of love done with a full heart brings people closer to God."

(Page 141, Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving)

If you believe this to be true, you will do all your works with a heart full of love.

Can you imagine the significance, and even privilege, of bringing others closer to God.

You can bring others closer to God today simply by your acts of love.

Continue in Love

"Do not imagine that love to be true must be extraordinary. No, what we need in our love is the continuity of love." [page 274, The Joy in Loving]

Mother Teresa once again sees through to the truth of our condition.

My study notes today read: "Continuance is a test of reality."

Reality will test the reality of your love. A true love will pass the test.

I Corinthians 13:7,8-Love bears all things...endures all things...Love never fails..."

Continue in love.

Works of Love are Works of Peace

"Our works of love are nothing but works of peace." So says Mother Teresa (The Joy in Loving, page 237).* [This is similar to entry on January 22, 2010.] She seems to say it so many ways. But if we are working acts of love, they will be done in peace, for peace, or have an affect of peace.

Is there peace in your life? If not, sow more love into your life.

Peace is a calm contentment with where you are and who you're with.

If you don't have it, love more, and see...

(*This is what she said when she received the Nobel Peace Prize of 1979)

The Wonder of Love

Psalm 17:7 reads, "show the wonder of YOUR great love.."

It is referring to God's great love, asking God to show His great love.

But, the same could be asked of you, show your great love.

Better yet, show the wonder of His great love, through your loving today.

Doing Our Best in Love

"God will not ask that person how many books he has read but God will ask him if he has done his best for the love of Him." (page 238, The Joy in Loving, Mother Teresa)

How do you think God will judge you? Do you think it will be a test of your knowledge, or a video clip of your good deeds or mistakes? Mother Teresa postulates that God will ask if we have done our best - because of our love. That's a good questions to ask ourselves today.

I Corinthians 10:31 - "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" - because you love Him and thus others.

Love You MORE

Has anyone ever said this in return to you saying you love them?

How is it they think they can measure their love against yours?

This seems to make love measurable: my love is greater than yours.

Or, I've felt (or seen) your love, and my love is greater than yours.

Make your statements of love strong and sure. Don't make it a battle of yours versus mine.

When you say you love someone, you've said enough.

When they say it to you, think of your response, and make it a good one.

Love You TOO

When I hear someone say, "Love you, too," it's usually always after I have said, "I love you." For some reason this bothers me. "Love you too," is a reactive statement to your words. They are not a proactive statement of condition. You either love someone, or you don't. It's not a "tag, you're it," now it's your turn to say it. I love you, period. It's your decision if you love me in return. My love is not based on your loving me. So, the next time someone says, "I love you." Either declare your love for them, or don't. Don't make it a tag line, "I love you too." To me, it seems to diminish my stating my love for you. Love is a declaration, not an afterthought.

What are you filled with?

In reading Acts I noticed how things were filled...

Acts 2:24 - they were filled with the Holy Spirit

Acts 2:43 - they were filled with awe

Acts 3:10 - they were filled with wonder and amazement

Good stuff. Then I read some bad stuff:

Acts 5:3 - Satan had so filled their hearts with lies

Acts 5:17 - they were filled with jealousy

So, I started thinking, what am I filled with? What are you filled with? The good stuff or the bad stuff. It's like a diet, I can eat the good stuff or the bad stuff. Which will I eat? Once I eat it, it will show. I want to be filled with the wonder of God. I want to be filled with His Spirit and His love.

Help me this day, O Lord. Fill me with You.

Are you filling the world with the love of God?

Mother Teresa says that no matter what we are doing we "are filling the world with the love God has given us." (Page 145, Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving)

Somedays, I admit, I fail. I am not filling the world with love, but with worry or complaints.

I am at fault. I don't want to be. I want to do my part to help fill the world with love, and not with worry or complaints.

Today, do your part to fill this world with love. God knows we need it!

The earth if filled with God's love

Psalm 119:64 says, "The earth is filled with your love, O Lord..."

Today ponder the earth being filled with God's love.

But my thought was, what if just I was filled with love?

Prayer: Lord, fill me with your love.

Love is free from Selfishness

Mother Teresa continues to teach us..."To love, it is necessary to give: to give it is necessary to be free from selfishness." (page 233,The Joy in Loving)

Most of love is achieved when we are free of selfishness. Selfishness comes from more self awareness than other-awareness. We become self absorbed, and this kills love. Love is other-aware, and thus other focused. We lose ourselves in our vision for others. We become one with what we see. They are a part of us, so loving them is easy.

Free yourself today from selfishness, and find yourself being more loving.

Time for Love?

No time for love?

No place for love?

No need to love?

No space for love in your life?

Are you answering yes or no to these questions? How you answer determines how you live. It reveals your heart. How's your heart? Is it ready to love? Do you give time, energy, and space in your life for love? Love will take your time, your energy. Are you giving space in your life for love to bloom and grow? If not, why?