I have a precious friend who is waiting…she is waiting for the arrival of her first born, her son.  She is 37 weeks and she is ready…the room is prepared, the diapers have been bought, shower gifts have been opened, washed and carefully stored away, his bed is made, her arms are ready to hold this little miracle that God has gifted her with!  It is a fun yet frustrating time..those last few weeks of waiting…the waiting of something so waited for, for something so longed for, for something so prayed for.

 She is ready today!

I feel much like this new mom-to-be!  I have been laboring, I have been preparing, I have been anticipating and anxiously awaiting arrival of this God-breathed project God has placed in my heart!  Several months ago I began the work of creating and growing this idea.  God divinely knitted several people along my path to help me bring this idea to life. And we have worked hard!  We have labored!  We are feeling the birth pains as the anticipated date of arrival draws closer!  And just like my new mom-to-be friend, I can NOT wait to hold “her” – my project in my arms.

What is it?  This project?

I am so glad you asked…it is a beautlful book of dreamy watercolor, intimate stories of moments shared in the presence of the King of kings and audio downloads to guide you into your own experience with Him. It’s a devotional with 52 opportunities to experience Jesus. To come to know Him in an intimiate, personal way.  My prayer for the women who will labor through the 52 weeks with me is that at the end of it they will know Jesus in a way they didn’t know was even possible and they will know that they are loved and will love themselves!

What a sweet thing He has allowed me to birth!

I can’t wait to hold it in my arms and give it to others to find the sacred secrets of His love for them!

We have been learning about heaven and listening to messages with heaven as the focus and it has been amazing and, for some reason, easily believable!

I say that because I tend to be a skeptic!  I wish I wasn’t but it is just how I am wired. I like to test things, I like to find more evidence to support things.  I don’t just like it, I need those things to help me believe!  One of my most favorite stories in the Bible is about the man who asks Jesus to heal his son and Jesus says, “Do you believe?” and the man responds, “Yes, and bless my unbelief!”  –that’s me!!!  Bless my unbelief Lord, help to believe more, help me to believe easily, help me to believe!!  And He is!  He is just gracious like that – “Ask and you shall receive,” He says!

So back to heaven…so heaven is described as the most beautiful and most fun place imaginable – actually even more that we can imagine — It is better than we could ever imagine!!  It has been awesome to imagine it and get excited about this REAL place, our true home!

This morning I was chatting with our three youngest girls and asked them, “So why do you think heaven is beautiful and fun?”  They had lots of answers to my question but the most simple and truest answer is this — because that is who God is!

He is beautiful and He is fun!  Heaven is a reflection of Him!

Who knew that 14 years later I would love this man more today than the day we married!?  I guess every couple that has been married for many years knew that!! That’s how it works – you choose to work it out, you choose to stay through tough times, you choose to love in spite of, you choose to work on your own issues as you give them the space to work on theirs, you choose…

Love is a choice most days!  Some days it is easy, most days it is hard!

Love is a verb…it is work! It is an action not just a feeling.  It is an active verb that requires activity not passivity!  You can not sit back and wait for love, you must chase after it, you must pursue, you must work towards it, you must stand on it, you must choose to believe in it on those hard days when you don’t feel it, don’t want it and have lost all hope in it!

One way I chose to pursue love years ago was to purpose to become a “good finder.” Early on in our marriage I complained alot about not feeling loved, wanting Marc to show love to me through sweet love notes and kindnesses throughout the day that proved he was thinking of me.  He was not so good at that, still isn’t!! As a result of my focus I felt unloved.  Believe me, there were quite a few tears shed, strong words expressed, hurt feelings lingering, misunderstanding shrouding the true intention behind both of our hearts!

I had to choose love!  

I had to chase after, pursue, work towards, stand on and believe the best…I chose to change my focus!

Each night at the end of the day I would write down all the ways he had showed me love that day…a phone call at lunch, bathing babies in the evening, a sweet look across the room during bedtime prayers, washing dishes after dinner, a kiss on the way out the door, going to work to provide for us, being thankful for a warm meal or clean clothes…the many ways he loved and still loves me!

It’s February, the month of love…choose to change your focus.  Be a good finder!   

          Love is a choice!

                  Love is a verb!