Thursday Thoughts

I have had a few conversions that have caused me to think
about things and I know with Valentines Day around the corner,
it made me think about what is love. Is it a feeling or an action.
Me, being a mother of course sees love as being an action, my life
for yours, and what Jesus did by dying to free us from death and to give
us hope. The Bible says God is love, so by that I know that that is
in His nature as is mercy and forgiveness. I also know that while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us. I know all of that and while
it has taken me a long time to try and see with eyes that understands trials and
hard things as love and for my good.

So I had these conversations, One was with a mother who
is raising her daughter to like boys " because of what they buy
her daughter and he is good if he gets you presents." I am not
a fast thinker so I knew that was a wrong thing to be teaching your
daughter but of course it has taken me a week to come up with an
answer. My next one was with a man who has lived a lifestyle that
will kill him. He was telling me that love to him was that he would
be accepted and loved for who he is and that I would overlook his
lifestyle.
I had to explain that his choices have made it impossible for him to be
around my children and grandchildren. I explained to him what I
thought love was and that it was sacrificial that it was giving up
what I want to make other people happy and to think higher of others
than myself. To put others first.
He got mad and yelled and stormed. I have had these talks now with
him for at least 20 years and they always end this way.

So as I was thinking about what love is, a story came to me
so I thought I would share it. When we had our son, our first
son, we were really poor. Only I didn't really know it. I can
look back and it was a really bad recession then. We were so poor
that I had to take the baby to a Well Baby Clinic to get shots and
I remember the lady looking at my paper work and told me I could
get assistance. I blew a fuse and yelled at her saying, " We are not poor!!
we live just fine." Which we were living just fine. We had food and a roof
over our head, I had two healthy children and I had a loving husband.
What more did I need.
Well, just one more thing. After having the baby my hair was straight. In
1986 it was the years of big hair. I loved big hair, still do. I needed a perm.
but we didn't have the money for me to go get it done. Valentines Day was coming
so my husband, said, " To go down and buy one at the store and I will give you a permanent."


So I went to the store and got the cheapest one I could find and came home.
It was a Sunday after church. He got out the directions and read them over
and over looking at the diagrams on how to roll the hair around the roller.
He thought it looked like a piece of cake. I was already seeing myself with
big hair again. So after lunch that day we started. He must have stood and
rolled my hair for four hours. I would have to stop and nurse the baby and
by the time we got to the last part the baby was screaming, my poor husband
had worked so hard and spent the whole day doing that. But when it was
finished it was so soft and lovely.
So when I think about love I think of the million little ways that love is shown
and it doesn't come in a heart shaped box nor in a vase of flowers. Love is made
up of the tiny ways every day that we choose to give of ourselves to others.

These are just my thoughts, just things I was thinking about. I know if we were sitting
down over a cup of coffee, you could think of tiny little ways that say I love you everyday
we don't need one day to make it special. I really think that is what makes life special is
all of the ways we can serve others. A smile, a touch, or even a kind word, then everyday
can be Valentines Day.
~ Kim~