How Do You Love

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends...faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 

-1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13 

Love.
It has been something that I have been learning lately. We all think we love but do we really or is it just an emotion we feel and we call it love.
Many people say they love someone, then the next thing you know, they don't talk anymore wether it be a friendship, family or spouse. But that just proves that the love they were talking about wasn't the true meaning of love, it was an emotional love. True love is the verse above, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13.

Francis Chan explains it very well in his book "Crazy Love". He says, "take the phrase Love is patient and substitute your name for the word love." So I did, [Gaby is patient.] Wow, to be honest I laughed when I wrote that because if you know me, you know I'm not the most patient person. It opened my eyes and made me evaluate how I love.

I don't want to have that emotional love, I want to have the true love. The love that is patient, kind and slow to anger. I want to share that love that this verse talks about to the people around me.

• To not keep any records of wrongs, because I love you.
• To be patient and kind, because I love you.
• To not be envy or boast, because I love you.
• To not be arrogant or rude, because I love you. 
• To bear all thing, believe all things, hope all things and to endure all things, because I love you.

That no matter what, I will always love because it's not just an emotion I'm just feeling, it's far more then that. Love is something that we invest in and shouldn't be selfish with.

The word of God shows us such a great example of love:

Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

How incredible. It's tough to believe that God loves us that much, even though we still sin and hurt him. If anything, we need to learn from that verse and cherish it. If God is able to love us even though he knows we are sinners, why can't we love our friends or family when they hurt us?
Next time you get mad at someone you truly love (spouse, family, friend), remember that Christ died for you when you/we didn't deserve it because that's true selfless love. So forgive and love because that is what God has taught us. It goes back to 1 Corinthians showing us that love keeps no record of wrong.

God knew we were gonna make mistakes but yet he still died for our sins. We know that the ones we love are going to make mistakes, so we should still love them.

Take a step back and evaluate how you are loving. God never once said welp, you messed up so my son is not gonna die for your sins. It was the exact opposite, he said "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

"Love is a long term investment that requires daily deposits. Don't treat it as a short term investment, it requires daily deposits because it's long term."

Love doesn't just come and go. It's a selfless everlasting love. We tend to think of love as hearts and kisses but love is far more then that.

This past Sunday at church, my pastor shared with us a love quiz to take to help us evaluate our love.

The Love Quiz:

1. Do I get mad while waiting?
2. Am I nice?
3. Am I happy when others succeed?
4. Do I think I'm better than them?
5. Am I sarcastic?
6. Do I compromise with others?
7. Am I easily irritated?
8. Do I hold grudges?
9. Am I happy even when proven wrong?
10. Do I stick with things?
11. Do I believe in competency of others? (Or am I the only one that can do it.)
12. Am I committed no matter what?

My eyes have been opened to an entirely different type of love, real love.

I apologize if this is all over the place and doesn't make much sense. Kinda word vomited all over my keyboard. Have been kinda out of it lately ha.

A Heart for you

As I sit here, I think of how amazing our God is. I know many women have written posts and books on being single. 

Most are encouraging books on how to wait for God's promise, 

Psalm 37:4 "Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

But friends, as I write this, I can't help but to think of why we hold on to that so closely.

As women, we (mostly) long to be loved, to be wife's, and to be mothers. But, what if that doesn't happen? Are you willing to be ok with that? 

Many will honestly admit that they will not be ok with that. Many desire and long for that in their life and think that they can't start living their life until that happens. 

I found myself asking this question this weekend. Would you be ok if God doesn't allow this for your life? In the beginning I sorta just chuckled and was like "Ha are you kidding? No, I would not be ok with that!"

As soon as that thought entered my head I thought, where is my heart.

Shouldn't our hearts belong to God? Shouldn't we live a life for Him and to bring glory to his name? If it is in his plan for us to have all the other things then he would allow it, we have to trust him.  

I know that's a tough one to swallow because as girls we are raised with this fairytale of a dream. As cliche as it sounds, the real "fairytale" story of our prince happened an entirely different way. He came down to this earth and died for us...because that is how much he loves us.

Some think our sole purpose is just to live happily ever after. I think we need to understand that our real happily ever after is in the eternity we get to spend with God.

I'm NOT saying that marriage is bad or anything because honestly, I so want to be married one day and have kids! But being in this season of singleness and seeing many friends getting married or having children, it get's tough. 

I have found a peace though. A peace in Gods love. That if all I ever have in this life is only his love, then I would be ok. And if he decides to send someone into my life to share a life with and a love with, then that would OBVIOUSLY be ok too ha.

I am learning to cherish this season of singleness. Changing my mind set from "Where is my husband" to "Where is God." 

Ruth 1:16 "Where you go I'll go, and where you stay I will stay."

I can't help but to think of my sweet best friend Lauren. I know that she would have been an absolutely amazing wife and mother, but unfortunately her life was cut short. As best friends, we would talk about our futures, weddings, husbands, kids...but in the midst of those conversations, that was never her main goal or worry in life. I would joke with her so many times saying, "Look there's your husband" and she would bust out laughing HER laugh. I think I was more obsessed with her getting married then she was. She lived her life solely for the Lord and she trusted His plan for her life, even when she didn't always understand it.

[ Lauren's blog: Life Beyond Texas: Success ] 

That's what I want. I want to live a life for God that I just focus on him. That I get to a place where all I need is his love and with that, I know that everything else will be ok. 

A lot of times, we don't get what we want. We pray for things that we WANT but don't really NEED and we get angry when God doesn't answer our prayers. But in this case, I have prayed for my husband because yes I want him right now, but I can't get angry at God for not answering my prayer because ultimately He knows what's better for me then I know for myself. 

"A women's heart should be so lost in God that a man must seek him in order to find her."

I long to have a heart for God. 

To fall in love with him each in everyday. 

Through every difficulty and every joy. 

That I will always long for Him and that in Him I will find everything else.

David Crowder- Only You