Speak About Love

Do you speak the loving truth with others in your life?

Humans have a great capacity for compassion for other, but we are all just human beings. Human nature does not allow most humans to continue to support other individuals with positive perspective and complete love with disregard for harmful intentions. Humans often enjoy the fall of another individual.

We see this all the time with people who are in the public eye after achieving stardom. Watching a star, such as Jewel, who lived in her car prior to making it big embodies a complete rags to riches story. It is stories like hers that appeals to most of us. However, just as quickly as a new star is born, their light will be put out. The negative publicity will air, and jealous people will rip him or her apart.

One of the greatest examples of a rise to popularity is the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus drew enormous crowds throughout His lifetime. His stories of His healing, miracles, and teaching of God were spoken about constantly during His time on earth. From the time He started to speak in public and heal ailing people, a following grew by word of mouth. There were no phones, TVs, and no Newspapers.

God instilled in each one of us a desire to speak with others. This human characteristic is something He created innately in us. This gift to speak can either bless us and others, or hurt us and others. He needed to use our humanness to spread the word of His Son, whom He prophesied about in the Old Testament.

Over this past year, I have spent so many hours learning, and praying, and drawing closer to Jesus than I have been in all my years. Yet, I still find my human nature denying, and not acknowledging that Jesus saved me from my hard times and my struggles. My love and compassion for others during this past year has been in line with how Jesus wants all of us to live our lives. Yet, I find that as I am no longer spending that same quality time with Him in His written word, that my humanness comes to the surface more quickly than I would like. The answer is to continue to read His word and pray to Him without ceasing. As humans who live in a distracting world, this is a challenge.

Jesus was sent to teach us to walk a life free from sin. Jesus came to teach us to turn another cheek. Jesus came to teach us how to love other's well. Jesus came to teach us about God, His Father, who art in heaven. Jesus came to live as a human, and endure pain like all humans endure. Jesus came to mirror how we are to live a blessed life on earth and after this life passes away. Jesus came to teach us about eternal life. Jesus came to nail all of our sins to the cross. Because no matter how hard we try to be perfect, each and every one of us will sin. We will hurt others. We will suffer pain. We will die. But, Jesus came to give us the gift of eternal life, so that when we believe in who He is, we will spend eternity with Him. We will be with a caring, loving, forgiving God, who will take away all our pain and suffering.

The amazing truth about Jesus is that although His life brought light into the world, the world still wanted to extinguish the light. Leaders and followers turned on Jesus and put Him to death. The truth is that if this wasn’t God’s plan, in order to free all of us from sin, Jesus could have lived. But, instead He remained sinless and chose to complete God's plan for His life and face death on a cross. He succumbed to following God’s will out of obedience and love for all mankind. He sacrificed the ultimate gift, life. The gift of life which each of us hold onto with daily desires to have fun, laugh, and be filled with joy. The truth is that sin is fun. But, sin hurts us and others we love.

Recently, I found myself in conversation with another who asked how I made it through challenging seasons in my life. The period that I was compelled to share most recently was how absolutely challenging it was for me, my husband and her brothers, when Grace was swimming and excelling at such an elite level in high school and in college. The sacrifices of not going out with her friends because she was too tired from giving all her energy in practices (14) per week. The discipline to keep maxing out her body every time she was in the weight room or the pool. This was a sacrifice of her youth and to all of us to keep encouraging her and lifting her up. This doesn't include staying on top of her college work load. She was in a constant state of exhaustion. We all know how it feels to be exhausted. Try spending your youth in that state of exhaustion before your frontal lobe has even developed, before you have gained Godly wisdom. Then think about walking in a state of exhaustion for another 7 years. The struggle is real.

Grace continued to walk through her days exhausted, and she never gave up. We continued to walk alongside her and speak or text encouraging words to her when she needed us. She did all of this out of the love of swimming and competition. She used her talent that God blessed her with, but it was not always fun.

We did all of this out of the love for Grace, and because God blessed us with her life, more than once. I wish I had responded, when asked, that God allowed all of us to walk through this season alongside Grace. God gave us the strength to keep walking through every single day in this season.

The reason for sharing about Grace's journey is to let other's know that excelling at the collegiate level is a complete sacrifice. It is not all glits and glamour, as our world wants you to think. As the saying goes, no one will know your journey, unless they have walked a mile in your shoes. The most important thing to remember, is to rely on God for guidance for your path. And also to remember that God has the best plan in place for your life. And that plan includes you Turning to Him, Trusting Him, and Believing in Him and His plan for your life.

Life is like building a skyscraper. Every floor that we complete, prepares us and supports us through every succeeding floor of life. With struggle, we grow. With struggles, we gain wisdom. Every floor that we add to our building helps us to grow taller and wiser.

During my illness, I experienced countless sleepless nights that left me exhausted. These repetitive nights that extended over some 8 years were a monumental challenge that forced me to rely on God's word completely with the support and love from my family. Even when I was not able to read His word in the night or I was exhausted from pleading for relief, I could listen to a Pastor preach God's word and relate to Jesus' suffering. It was Jesus who helped me to continue to get out of bed everyday and see the joy that surrounded me in my life. It is the promise and the hope that when I leave this body here on earth, I will join Him in the garden, for eternity.

My time reading His words, learning of His goodness and grace, and keeping faith alive are the reasons that I am able to walk through my days with love, hope, and joy. Hopefully, you will not find yourself in a dark place where hope is lost. But, I bet you will at some point, because Jesus longs for us to call on Him and draw near to Him, so that He can reveal His great glory to you. Have you talked with Him lately, or read about challenges He endured?

The most past down story of all times is that of the life of Jesus. His time when He was walking this earth, teaching others and loving others without harming them. His complete message when He was with others on this earth, was committed to revealing His Father and all of His promises and goodness to others whom He loved (all mankind). Even those whom He hand picked to walk with Him and disciple with Him, struggled at times to believe the marveling of His miracles. Jesus performed miracles right in front of others, constantly, throughout His lifetime. He fed multitudes of people from 5- loaves and fishes. He healed Mary Magdelene, who had been tormented for years. Jesus was able to change lives with just His spoken word. The spoken word that He used to bless others lives up to the last words that He spoke while hanging on a cross.

Words are powerful. Just like His Father, who spoke all creation into existence. Jesus’ words were so powerful that a multiple of men left the lives they knew, behind, and followed Him. Several of these same men, wrote down the words that He spoke to them, and what they witnessed while they were with Him throughout His life.

Use God's gifts wisely. Use the gift to speak to help build the kingdom of God, not hinder other's from believing of all the goodness that He can bless you with. Be prepared to speak the reason for your strength and renewal, and give God the glory. Peace❤️

"It is finished." -John 19: 30

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" - Mark 15: 34