I Love The Lord

If You’ve Ever Been In Love…

Think back (for some of you this will take longer than others) to when you met that man/woman that you just knew would be the one. Remember when you realized/admitted to yourself that you loved him/her.

Now remember how much you wanted to act like you were in a movie, and yell to everyone in the football stadium “I love (fill in the name)!!!!” You told family and friends how perfect he was. You told your boys how she was just what you were looking for.

Well, I told THE LORD I loved Him today. And He said to me, “How much do you love me? You haven’t told anyone how good I’ve been to you. You haven’t shared how perfect my love is. You haven’t spread the good news that I am always there to listen to your problems. You haven’t told your family how I helped you pay your bills when you didn’t have a high paying job, or how I got you a better one. You didn’t tell your boys how I took away that addiction that would have cost you not only your job, but that woman that was just what you were looking for. So how much do you really love me?

So, I said I would share with my friends and family (for starters) just how wonderful, perfect, understanding, patient, loving, unselfish, considerate and forgiving GOD really is. He has blessed me with a family that loves me and friends that I can confide in.

But even more than that He has saved me from a destruction I couldn’t even see coming. He gave to me the peace of knowing Him and He has never broken a promise. Truly He is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I stand in my stadium today to yell to you all “I love THE LORD!!!”

- Author unknown

To My Child

Just for this morning, I am going to smile when I see your face and laugh when I feel like crying.

Just for this morning, I will let you choose what you want to wear, and smile and say how perfect it is.

Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park to play.

Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together.

Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you in the backyard and blow bubbles.

Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the ice cream truck, and I will buy you one if he comes by.

Just for this afternoon, I won’t worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second-guess every decision I have made where you are concerned.

Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won’t stand over you trying to fix them.

Just for this afternoon, I will take us to McDonald’s and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys.

Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you.

Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry.

Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars.

Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favorite TV shows.

Just for this evening when I run my finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given.

I will think about the mothers and fathers who are searching for their missing children; the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children’s graves instead of their bedrooms; and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside they can’t handle it anymore.

And when I kiss you goodnight I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer. It is then, that I will thank God for you, and ask him for nothing, except one more day.

- Author unknown

Unconditional Acceptance

I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology. The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with. Her last project of the term was called “Smile.” The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions. I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway, so, I thought this would be a piece of cake, literally.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald’s one crisp March morning. It was just our way of sharing special play time with our son. We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did. I did not move an inch…an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved.

As I turned around I smelled a horrible “dirty body” smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was “smiling.” His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God’s Light as he searched for acceptance.

He said, “Good day” as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally deficient and the blue eyed gentleman was his salvation. I held my tears as I stood there with them.

The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, “Coffee is all Miss” because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm). Then I really felt it-the compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes.

That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action. I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray. I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue eyed gentleman’s cold hand.

He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, “Thank you.” I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, “I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope.” I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son.

When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, “That is why God gave you to me, Honey. To give me hope.” We held hands for a moment and at that time we knew that only because of the Grace that we had been given were we able to give.

That day showed me the pure Light of God’s sweet love.

I returned to college, on the last evening of class, with this story in hand. I turned in “my project” and the instructor read it. Then she looked up at me and said, “Can I share this?” I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class.

She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings and being part of God, share this need to heal people and be healed. In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald’s, my husband, son, instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student.

I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn: UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE.

Much love and compassion is to each and every person who may read this and learn how to LOVE PEOPLE AND USE THINGS – NOT LOVE THINGS AND USE PEOPLE.

- Author unknown

Jesus Really Loves You

Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at their church, the Pastor and his 11-year-old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said “Okay Dad, I’m ready.”

His Pastor Dad asked, “Ready for what?

“Dad, it’s time we gather our tracts together and go out.”

Dad responds, “Son, it’s very cold outside and it’s pouring down rain.”

The boy gives his Dad a surprised look, asking, “But Dad, aren’t people still going to Hell, even though it’s raining?”

Dad answers, “Son, I am not going out in this weather.”

Despondently the boy asks, “Dad, can I go — Please?”

His father hesitated for a moment then said, “Son, you can go. Here’s the tracts; be careful son.”

“Thanks, Dad!” And with that he was off and out into the rain. This 11-year-old boy walked the streets of the town going door-to-door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel tract. After 2-hours of walking in the rain he was soaking bone-chilled wet and down to his very last tract. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to but the streets were totally deserted.

Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell – but nobody answered. He rang it again and again bit still no one answered. He waited but still no answer. Finally this 11-year-old trooper turned to leave but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch. He rang again, and this time the door slowly opened. Standing in the doorway was a very sad looking elderly lady.

She softly asked, “What can I do for you, son?”

With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, “Ma’am, I’m sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU! I came to give you my very last Gospel tract which will tell you all about Jesus and His great love.” With that he handed her his last tract, and turned to leave.

She called to him as he departed, “Thank you, son! And God bless you!”

Well, the following Sunday morning in church, Pastor Dad was in the pulpit and as the service began he asked, “Does anybody have a testimony or want to say anything?”

Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet. As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face.

“None of you in this church know me. I’ve never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband has passed on, some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart . . . as I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live.

“So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. “Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted, I was about to leap off when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me.

I thought, ‘I’ll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.’ “I waited and waited — but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent and then the person ringing also started
knocking loudly. I thought to myself again, ‘Who on earth could this be?! Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me!’ “I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder.

When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes! “There on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life! His smile! Oh, I could never describe it to you!

And the words that came from his mouth caused my heart, that had long been dead, to leap to life as he exclaimed with cherub-like voice, ‘Ma’am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY
DOES LOVE YOU.’ ”

Then he gave me this Gospel tract that I now hold in my hand. As the little angel disappeared back out, into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn’t be needing them any more.

“You see, I am now a happy child of the KING, and since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel tract I have come here to personally say, ‘Thank you to God’s little angel who came just in the nick of time, and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in Hell.’”

There were now no dry eyes in the church. As shouts of praise and honor to the KING resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated. He took him in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.

Probably no church has had a more glorious moment and probably this Universe has never seen a Papa that was more filled with love and honor for his son, except for one: This Father, God, also allowed His Son, Jesus, to go out into a cold and dark world. He received His Son back with joy unspeakable, and as all of Heaven shouted praises and honor to the King, the Father sat His beloved Son on a throne far above all principality and power and every name that is named.

There may be someone, reading this, who is also going through a dark, cold and lonely time in your soul. You may be a Christian, for we are not without problems, or you may not yet know the King. Whatever the case, and whatever the problem or situation you find yourself in, and no matter how dark it may seem, I want you to know that I just came to tell you, “JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU!”

- Author unknown

God’s Love Letter To You And Me

You may not know me, but I know everything about you…
Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up…
Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways…
Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered…
Matthew 10:29-31

For you were made in my image…
Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being…
Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring….
Acts 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived…
Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation…
Ephesians 1: 11-12

You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book…
Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live…
Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made…
Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother’s womb…
Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born…
Psalm 71:6

I have been misrepresented by those who don’t know me…
John 8:41-44

I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love… 1 John 4:16

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you simply because you are my child and I am your father… 1 John 3:1

I offer you more than your earthly parents ever could…
Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect Parent…
Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand…
James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs…
Matthew 6:31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope…
Jeremiah 29:11

Because I love you with an everlasting love…
Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts towards you are countless as the sand on the seashore…
Psalm 139:17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing…
Zephania 3:17

I will never stop doing good to you…
Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession…
Exodus 19:5

I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul…
Jeremiah 32:41

And I want to show you great and marvelous things…
Jeremiah 33:3

If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me…
Deuteronomy 4:29

Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart…
Psalm 37:4

For it is I who gave you those desires…
Philllippians 2:13

I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine…
Ephesians 3:20

For I am your greatest encourager…
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles…
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you…
Psalm 34:18

As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close you my heart…
Isaiah 40:11

One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes and will take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth….
Revelation 21:3-4

I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus…
John 17:23

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed…
John 17:26

He is the exact representation of my being…
Hebrews 1:3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you…
Romans 8:31

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins…
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Jesus died so that I could be reconciled…
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you…
I John 4:10

I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love…
Romans 8:38-39

Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen…
Luke 15:7

I have always been Father, and will always be Father…
Ephesians 3:14-15

My question is … Will you be my child?
John 1:12-13

I am waiting for you …
Luke 15:11-32

- Author Unknown

The Perfect Heart

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said “Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.” The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.

The people stared – how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? The young man looked at the old man’s heart and saw its state and laughed. “You must be joking,” he said. “Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”

“Yes,” said the old man, “Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love – I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges — giving love is taking a chance.

Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?”

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side.

How sad it must be to go through life with a whole untouched heart.

- Author unknown

Pancakes and Love

Six year old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes. He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor. He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten.

Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad. He didn’t know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove, and he didn’t know how the stove worked!

Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton to the floor. Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting his pajamas white and sticky. And just then he saw Dad standing at the door.

Big crocodile tears welled up in Brandon’s eyes. All he’d wanted to do was make them proud. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking. But his father just watched him. Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process.

That’s how God deals with us.

We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Our marriage gets all sticky or we insult a friend or we can’t stand our job or our health goes sour.

Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can’t think of anything else to do.

That’s when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over Him. But just because we might mess up, we can’t stop trying to “make pancakes,” for God or for others. Sooner or later we’ll get it right, and then they’ll be glad we tried…

- Author unknown

Family

I ran into a stranger as he passed by.
“Oh, excuse me please” was my reply.
He said, “Please excuse me too; wasn’t even watching for you.”
We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said good-bye.

But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.
Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My daughter stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked her down.
“Move out of the way,” I said with a frown.
She walked away, her little heart broken.
I didn’t realize how harshly I’d spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,
God’s still small voice came to me and said
“While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
But the children you love, you seem to abuse.

Look on the kitchen floor,
You’ll find some flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers she brought for you.
She picked them herself, pink, yellow and blue.

She stood quietly not to spoil the surprise,
And you never saw the tears in her eyes.”
By this time, I felt very small
And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by her bed;
“Wake up, little girl, wake up,” I said.
“Are these the flowers you picked for me?”
She smiled, “I found ‘em, out by the tree.

I picked ‘em because they’re pretty like you.
I knew you’d like ‘em, especially the blue.”
I said, Daughter, I’m sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn’t have yelled at you that way.”

She said, “Oh, Mom, that’s okay.
I love you anyway.”
I said, “Daughter, I love you too,
And I do like the flowers, especially the blue.”

Are you aware that: If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family, an unwise investment indeed.

So what is behind the story?
You know what the full word of family is?

FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER, (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU !

- Author Unknown