Happy Valentine's Day!

Before I go into my official blog post I would like to add some flavor to my ‘recipe’. So as not to bore all my readers to death! :D

My family celebrated Valentine’s Day yesterday. Due to the fact that my two older sisters have Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO) practice tonight, we decided to celebrate it last night so that they would be in the pictures and enjoy the delicious meal! :D

For most of our special events we like to have candlelight dinners. Whether it be a birthday, a ceremony, such as finishing a Wisdom book, or as the case is now, Valentine’s Day!

 We don’t take our candlelight dinners lightly either!

For this special day mom had prepared journals for each of us children to share with her. All of this was done right under our noses. As the first journal entry mom wrote to each of us, she made it our ‘identity statement’. So that whenever we are discouraged as to who we really are and how we fit in this world, we can always go back to that first journal entry and get a sense of acceptance. She wrote the statement, or rather paragraph interweaving our spiritual gift, that was fun figuring out each of our spiritual gifts, the meaning of our names, and a scripture verse, quote, or a song that has impacted our lives. It’s very special for a mom of ten kids to commit herself to such a time consuming effort. It is worth it all in the end. J

                                                                            Stephanie

Emily

Me

Mackenzie

Corrie

Isaac

Eric

                             Destiny. (Mom didn’t include Michael because he can’t write yet, or read)

Us three older girls being rather silly… we weren’t really looking at anyone, except our mom! Really! ;)

We tried to get mom to put hearts in her eyes as she looked at dad, but she couldn’t quit laughing. I was barely able to take the picture without it being blurry.

                                                    All of us yeawhoos, with our journals

Now to get to the real reason for me writing this blogpost…..

Love

Credit of Photobucket.

It’s a simple four letter word. Yet there is so much meaning packed into those four letters.

There are two Latin words that best interpret this word.

Agapaō: to love in a social, moral sense

Agapē: Affection or benevolence; charity, dear love.

God is love. Though, which word do we use to define His love for us?

It couldn’t really be Agapaō because that just didn’t seem like enough love for God to send His only Son to this world, or for that matter to design a universe with all the necessary details for humans to live there.

 Create the first man and woman because He was lonely and wanted perfect fellowship with someone; giving them a second chance to start a new life after they had ruined their first chance to live perfectly.

Save the righteous man, Noah and his family amidst the wickedness in the world. Guiding and leading His righteous and chosen people down through the ages.  Sacrifice His only and perfect Son so that everyone might have Eternal life, if they choose to accept. Does that sound like the kind of love you would have for a casual friend? No. God’s love is much broader than a casual friendship. His love is Agapē; affection, dear love. He wants you to love Him just as equally. That is hard for any human being to do so in our day and age. It always has. It’s because of our sinful nature.

 I am striving to love God with all my heart. It is no easy task though. I constantly have to clear out the distractions and other things that have slowly but surely crept in and stolen my devotion and pure love from God.

So as you dwell on the true meaning of this lovely holiday, search deep in your heart and find who your true love really is.

Courtesy of Photobucket.