What love is not.

Funny the things that can inspire you. 

 Strangely, the one that inspired this thought/tangent /digression (not sure if this is a word...) was a two hour movie solely dedicated to a 16 year old boy. I am guessing most of you, possibly, have seen “Justin Bieber-Never Say Never?” (PS: Spellcheck still doesn't recognize “Bieber” so things are not as far gone as we think).

It truly was a great movie about an adorable little kid who is really talented. The one thing I realized, while watching it with my sister, is that it shows a beautiful (and also disturbing picture) of what love is not.

Love is not obsession.

Love is not momentary.

Love is not erratic.

Love is not this:

My sister was saying I should write a book on this and who knows, possibly I will (I have started two others but just haven't found the gumption to complete them yet). This really is so important: for women, and men, to realize that love is not this temporary exposition of emotion.

Everyone seems to be looking for twitterpation (Bambi...); that madly in love feeling that hikes you to the moon and back. However, when they don't have it (for our generation this is the shocking divorce rate that stems from “I'm no longer happy”..aka: this person no longer pleases me entirely- or for our parents generation: the "my children were my little gods for too many years and I forgot to learn who my spouse was"), they think that they have “fallen out of love.” Truth is-you had no idea what love was in the first place.

We can easily be the girl in the Justin Bieber video who let someone fill a void and then made it an obsession. We can make that person a god and then chose to stop worshipping them when they stopped worshipping us and fulfilling a void we have. Harsh-but true. I know-I was this girl and I feel called to make sure that other women are not.

LOVE is these verses that are read at nearly all weddings...if only people really knew what they were having pronounced before family and friends/witnesses.

I Corinthians 13: 4-8

 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It ALWAYS protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

This is TRUTH and it is hard.  I pray our marriage is always built on this, on the statutes that God set forth for the standards for love.  It really changes your entire life to experience love in this way: both in giving it and also in receiving it.  

Matt and I have had to totally work on things much harder than we did before our little peanut arrived. We HAVE TO KEEP LEARNING each other and, in the words of my beautiful friend Tammy, "nothing good is ever easy" (they just got a little girl from Uganda after waiting for 1.5 years).

Oh, and new friend, this was a post I started weeks ago and decided I must finish it based on what you posted today.  Thanks for being such a kindred spirit :)

Oh, and a little dose of Ruthie :)

She is pure delight. She talks up a storm and loves to sing. Praise Jesus for a beautiful little one like you.  

You are our sunshine in the midst of an Oregon winter.

xoxo, Anna (one working on loving well)