Love

Today our hometeacher came and shared this month's message from Pres. Monson entitled Love At Home. During the lesson B.J. asked what love at home includes. Ashley answered, "A fridge." Yes. Love with family is eating together. Emily answered, "A house." Yes. A home to keep us safe; to play in. I answered, "Love for God and for each other." To me that would look like praying and praising together. Showing respect and courtesy to each other.

I just read an entry on my friend (who I've never met) Michelle Perry's blog about love. Michelle is a single woman from the midwest who gave her heart to God to be his missionary. She currently lives in Sudan Africa where she lives in an orphanage with 120+ kids helping share God's love in that part of the world. I was introduced to her through her book Love Has a Face. She wrote a post about the same topic.

I am feeling the love of God more in the last week than I have. It feels good.

"Love looks like...

safe boundaries.

not being left to cry alone.

bandaging open wounds until they heal.

someone to color with.

seeing beyond what is visible to what is true.

being willing to be chalk covered and so tired you mix three languages and speak nonsense.

making time and space for each others special needs (we ALL have them).

grace for those who fear what they do not understand.

rainbows on paper and cement and us.

patience in the waiting.

taking time to guard a gate to a world that might bring harm.

hugs and smiles when you feel more like a good cry.

like laying aside the necessary and the pressing for the eternal that outweighs them all.

trusting Jesus really does have a plan for getting done that which needs getting done. He really, really does.

those who have been forgiven much, rescued from life's deepest pits coming tenderly to the rescue of this one still struggling to find the light.

sitting on a mat on a hot July afternoon with some of heaven's greatest treasures.

Love looks like lessons in Mercy."