How Free is Your Love?

Here's one man's definition of love: "Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you."

(Wayne Dyer)

How "free" is your love?

Do you have conditions they must meet for you to give them more?

How other-centered is your love, or is it really about meeting your needs/expectations?

Is it about satisfying them or you?

Do you love them -so they can better, or you?

These are great questions to keep your love pure.

Love as Your Guide

"Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries." Rumi

An astrolabe is an ancient instrument of navigation. It helped discovered stars alignment, and the sun's time.

So, if we think of love as a navigation system to all the mysteries in life and God, we would do well.

Or, in today's vernacular, think of love as your GPS system. Let it guide you.

Love & Beauty & Doing

"Let the beauty of what you love, be what you do." Rumi

Friendship is the Basis Building Block

"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages." Friedrich Nietzsche

Friendship which is the basic building block of relationships, is the base upon which relationships are built - to last. If you are friend, you are a friend forever, regardless of what happens. If you are friends with your mate, you will always want the best for them. You will always give them the benefit of any doubts. You will be there, no matter what. What kind of friend are you in your marriage? Perhaps you are better friends to those outside your marriage. If so, that's a shame. Be a friend today, to your spouse!

Love is Oneness

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." Aristotle

Doesn't that picture oneness of spirit and soul?

You are one.

You were one before you knew it.

You are better together than apart.

You are stronger for the other.

You are completed with them.

You are made whole with this unity.

'A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.' Genesis 2:21

Love is Blind

"Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes." Friedrich Nietzsche

Voltaire said, "It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love."

Which is true to you? Is love blind? Or, is self-love blind?

Self love is perhaps blind (or in denial) to it's own faults, but not those of others.

Love that is blind, may see the faults of others, but loves them anyway.

Be blind to their problems and fully aware of their giftedness ~ to you!

Love is an Education

"The giving of love is an education in itself." Eleanor Roosevelt

Educate yourself today: love someone.

Educate others today: love them.

Learn the lessons that love has to offer.

Learn them now, before it's too late.

Love is Refreshment

Love is the greatest refreshment in life." Pablo Picasso

We think of Picasso as painting. But before he painted, he thought. His art was inspired by what he thought. His art expressed what he thought and felt.

Isn't it great to know he felt love was the greatest refreshment in life.

Is love refreshing you?

What Defines Your Life?

Second John (verse 6) gives us a definition of love: "This is love - that we walk according to His commandments." In other words that we obey, that we do what He says, what He wants.

James 1:27 gives us a definition of what "religion" is: That we care for widows and orphans in their distress and keep ourselves from being polluted by the world. First Samuel (15:22) tells us to obey is better than sacrifice. It pleases God more. Proverbs 21:3 says, "To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."

Love as a Guide

Neb Hayden asks in his book, When the Good News Gets Even Better, "How can my love for Jesus guide my lifestyle?" (page 129)

How is love guiding your life?

How does love direct your choices?

Let Love, guide you today.

Let Loving Be Your Voice

Jaci Velasquez has a song, Love Out Loud. As I listened on the radio, one line, hit me the most: "Let your loving be your voice."

What a great picture: Let our loving speak for us.

Speak loudly today with your voice of love in action.

Your Love Potential

"The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!" Anne Frank

This great wisdom comes from a teenage girl in war times.

Do you know the good news?

If you don't know how great you can be, do you comprehend how much you can love?

Probably a lot more than you know!

2 Ways To Fullness of Life

"It seems there are two basic ways to feel the fullness of life, and both arise from the authenticity of our relationships. One is from our love of life, and the other is from our love of each other."

(page 33, The Book of Awakening, Mark Nepo)

"Our most frequent obstacle to experiencing the fullness of life...is the hesitancy that keeps us from being either fully alone with life or fully alone with each other. Being half anywhere is the true beginning of loneliness." (page 34, IBID)

Loving Those Over You

In reading I Thessalonians 5 verses 12 and 13, it became clear that I was to esteem "very highly in love" those who work with me and are "over me" - for their works sake. That hit me. I might respect, or pay respect to my 'bosses,' but did I esteem them, or even "highly love" them? It says I am to do this for their work's sake. I should appreciate their work and love them for what they do. There's a challenge. I should really check myself with this admonition.

In faith, love, patience, spirit, faith, & purity

As Paul instructs Titus (in chapter 2) in how to have "sound doctrine", he used a string of words that caught my attention...in faith, in love, in patience (verse 2).

In I Timothy (4:12) there is a similar admonishment for believers...in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

If we could desire, attempt, and aim to do everything in faith, love and patience, we'd all be better for it, and so would others! If we could in our words and conduct, act in love, faith and purity, with a humble and godly spirit, how much better all our worlds would be.

I know I'll fail. But, today, again, I will make it my goal. God help me!

We Are Loved By God

"...It is about knowing ourselves to be deeply loved by God as the first step in becoming genuinely great lovers of others and God." (page 11, Surrender to Love, David Benner)

God loves you. [John 3:16]

God has loved you for a long time. [Jeremiah 31:3]

God made you. [Psalm 139:13,14]

God chose you. [Ephesians 1:11]

God has plans for you. [Jeremiah 29:11]

Learning To Love & Be Loved

"There is nothing more important in life than learning to love and be loved.

Jesus elevated love as the goal of spiritual transformation.

Psychoanalysts consider it the capstone of psychological growth."

(David Benner, Surrender to Love, p. 11)

Learning to love and to accept love, that is the question.

Are we going to do?

Are we going to accept it?

We need it: we need to give it, we need to receive it.

Grow in love. Learn the lessons love has to teach you. To learn we have to be humble, we have to be willing, we have to be open. How humble and willing and open are you?

Loving the Least, is Loving More

Matthew 25:40, "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it for Me."

Francis Chan explains this in his book, Crazy Love, (page 119):

"Jesus is saying that we show tangible love for God in how we care for the poor and those who are suffering. He expects us to treat the poor and the desperate as if they were Christ Himself."

How are you loving the least around you?

How are you extending love to the least that perhaps you don't even see?

Faith & Love

Galatians 5:6 says, "The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love."

Francis Chan challenges us, "Is loving God - and, by extension, loving people - what you are about? Is it what being a Christian means to you? Do you live as though faith, demonstrated through love, really is the only thing that counts?" (page 102, Crazy Love)

What matters to you?

How can you show your faith through love?

And, how can you express your love by your faith?

What's the Most Loving Way to do Life?

Chan Francis challenges us to ask ourselves in his book, Crazy Love, (page 166):

"Is this the most loving way to do life?"

I don't know what you are doing, but it's a great question to ask yourself.

Whatever you are doing, do it with love.

Or as the Bible tells us, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord..." (Colossians 3:23); and "Whatever you do...do it all in the name of the Lord, giving thanks to God" (Colossians 3:17); and "Whatever your do, do it all for the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31); and "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (Proverbs 16:3)

Loving with More Than Words

"My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."
I John 3:18

Francis Chan in Crazy Love (page 119) says, "Our love is shown by how we live our lives..."

What does your life show? How are you living in such a way that people know you love them?

Is your love in words only? Is "I love you" spoken as you breeze by or hang up the phone?

Do we pay lip service and avoid "losing time" with them?

It's humbling to consider how we truly love in deed and in truth.

Your Love is Better Than Life

"Your love is better than life..." Psalm 63:3 (NIV)

Have you experienced a love like this?

This is David expressing his love toward God.

He speaks of seeking him (v. 1), thirsting for him (v. 1), longing for him (v. 1).

He desires to praise him (v. 3), bless him (v. 4, 5), to follow after him (v. 8).

He states he is satisfied with him (v. 5), and he rejoices in him (v. 7).

Isn't this a great picture of a love relationship?

If you are not experiencing this, try to follow David's example.

Love Love

Francis Chan in his book, Crazy Love, (P. 101) says that his wife's grandmother, Clara, used to declare:

"I love love!"

Don't you just love it?

I love love too!

Love love, it's the best way to live - and love!

Love Through the Ages

"Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age." Anais Nin

Today is my brother's birthday. People tire of celebrating their birthdays. But, I say it beats the alternative! If we have the privilege of life, we gain the effects of aging. The best antidote to aging miserably is to love fully. Life is full only when lived with love.

I pray love protects your life today. As you age, seek to love more.

The World's Great Love Religion

"Christianity is the world's great love religion. The Christian God comes to us as love, in love, for love. The Christian God woos us with love and works our transformation through love." (page 10, David Benner, Surrender to Love)

I love how Benner says ~

1. God comes to us as love. 2. God comes in love. 3. God came for love.

It's a great religion, a religion of love, because God is love - He is for love.

Is Love Central to You?

"If I am meant to represent what love is, then I often fail to love people well...

It must be central to everything we do and are." (Francis Chan, Crazy Love, p. 94)

How central is love to you and what you do?

I know we fail. But, the point is do we even try? How hard do we try? How much do we depend on God to love through us?

Is love at your core? If not, why not?

What Matters To God? LOVE

"God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love...According to God, we are here to love. Not much else really matters...God assesses our lives based on how we love." (Crazy Love, Francis Chan, page 93, 94)

When you grasp the fact that you will be judged on how you loved, because this is a reflection of how you acted and how you felt.

I think we all worry about our bad actions and forget about the quality of our love and relationships. Start worrying about that and not the other ~ and hopefully your behavior will change!

Love Self = Love World

"In loving ourselves, we love the world." (page 29, Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening)

I don't know how this is true. This is one man's belief.

But it makes you think, could the world be a better place, if I loved myself, a little better, or perhaps a little more properly? What I mean by that is if all the people who are so down on themselves, or have such a skewed sense of themselves, could get it more in positive alignment, then perhaps the world would be better. We all would be better. Just something to think about. After all, it was Jesus who told us to love others ---- as we love ourselves. (Matt 22:39)

The Courage To Love...Yourself

"I've learned that loving yourself requires a courage unlike any other." (page 29, The Book of Awakening, Mark Nepo)

How courageous can you be? Not only are you called to others, you are also called to love yourself. In Matthew 22:37, Jesus says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Today, don't leave out the second part of that command.

Meditate on Love

"Meditating on God's love has done more to increase my love than decades of effort to try to be more loving." (David Benner, Surrender to Love, p. 92)

Today, meditate on God and His love. Ponder His great love toward you and this earth.

Don't make love your efforts. You will run out of desire or strength.

Let His love for you flow through to others.

From "Me" to "We"

"Transformation into love is a shift from a focus on me to an awareness of the greater we. David Benner in Surrender to Love (page 93) says this and refers to Fritz Kunkel's "psychology of the we."

Shift your thinking today from "ME" to "WE".

It's a small shift, but it will make a big difference.

Just that one small letter, changes everything.

Like an attitude adjustment, a perspective adjustment, is just what we need.

Benner concludes: "When love draws me from isolation into community, your life touches mine - your pain touches me, your afflictions touch me, your anxieties touch me. In short, you become a part of me. My solidarity with you and with all human beings expands the boundaries of what I experience as my self." (page 94)