I Love You

"Maybe it's too soon to say I love you." I don't remember every word from the Valentines Day card, but I vividly remember reading the words, "Maybe it's too soon to say I love you." To be clear, it was WAY too soon. Amber and I had only been dating a few weeks and equally important to share, we were only 15 years old at the time. Like I said, it was WAY too soon. However, it didn't occur to me at the time to be a premature utterance, and strangely I felt the exact same way. I loved Amber. At least "love" as a 15 year old knows what love is.

Throughout our relationship since that February in 1996, we've had some truly amazing moments and experiences. We also had our fair share of gut wrenching difficulties as well. You see, it's easy to say "I love you." Words take little effort. Even toddlers can form the phrase, "I love you." Admittedly, it does in fact mean a lot when someone truly and genuinely tells you, "I love you." What means significantly more however, is when someone SHOWS you they love you.

True "love" after all is a verb, not a stale and void space filled with meaningless letters.

Amber told me she "loved" me in 1996, but she's spent some part of every day since SHOWING ME SHE LOVES ME. Often times the greatest examples and displays of her love are instances of complete selflessness. When she gives up a part of herself, a part of her day, to make my life better. Sometimes it's small things, like an encouraging text. Sometimes its big things like carrying our children for 9 months. Sometimes it's a single event that has a significant impact.

"I completely forgot my jacket on the bed this morning" is not an uncommon call back home for help. Without fail, despite what she has going on, despite the length of her to do list, the van pulls up at work and a smiling face hands over my forgotten item. She's also the exhausted mom sitting at the kitchen table, long after the kids have gone to bed, coloring valentines to give the kids the next morning. The cards read "I love you," but her sacrifice in giving up the small window of free time in the evening however, shows them just how much.

If you haven't had an occasion to read the bible, a central and recurring theme and command is, are you ready for it...LOVE. LOVE each other. LOVE God. We are called to LOVE. It's pretty simple. Also we are told to love not just with words but with "actions and truth."

"Dear Children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." -1 John 3:18

God is ever present and all knowing. He is capable of anything. His voice could have rained down a definitive, "I love you" from Heaven. Instead..."God shows his love for us in that, while we were sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8

It was a selfless act. God gave up a part of Himself. He sacrificed His only son, to make our eternal life possible. Sometimes it's a single event that has a significant impact.

 So, you should never wonder about how God views you. Never question where you stand. What God has done for you, clearly demonstrates His affection. You've seen depictions of His Son crucified on a cross, know He did that for you. Know He did it to SHOW you...."I Love You."


Much Love, Adam
_________________________________________________________________________________
"Above all else, love each other deeply" -1 Peter 4:8
"My command is this, love each other as I have loved you." -John 15:12
"We love because he first loved us." -1 John 4:19
"Let all you do be done with love." -1 Corinthians 16:14
"Faith, Hope, and Love; but the greatest of these is Love." -1Corinthians 13:13
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." -Ephesians 4:2
"A friend loves at all times." -Proverbs 17:17
"Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Matthew 22:37
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." -Lamentations 3:22
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." -Romans 8:38-39
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." -John 3:16

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