Loving God

Happy Valentine's Day! Today is the a day to show those you care about how much you care. There were hearts, flowers, cards, and candy at church yesterday. Yesterday was deemed Love Sunday. We gave cards, notes and candy to most everyone. It's a nice way to show our Christian family how much we love them.


How do you show your family love? Do you show them everyday? Valentine's Day is close to my birthday, so I never expect anything. My husband asked me what we were doing for the holdiay. I told him I didn't want to do anything. The kids are going to see the new movie Gnomeo and Juliet, but that's okay. I'd rather stay home. I am making a yummy roast, rice and veggies and bread. I make a pretty good cheesecake, so I am making that for a nice treat.

I love my children and husband and would do almost anything for them. I take them to church, I correct them, talk with them, help them deal with their problems and support them. I love them with everything in my being. But I love God more.

Deuteronomy 6:5 "Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."

I think that loving the Lord with all your heart is easy. We are emotional people. Sometimes it is much easier to follow our emotions than our minds. Love is much more than an emotion. It is an action. How do you love? You do things, you say things, and the emotions that you send others. You do everything you can to show your emotion for others.

Loving God with all your soul is tricky. Your soul is not something you feel, or even think about. Our soul is what you put into things. What you do in your job, your life, your family, your relationships, can be your soul. So loving God with all that you have in you may be what this means.

Loving God with all your mind is your concious effort to make decisions, logical ideas and knowing what is right from wrong. Being wise is something that most of deem to be important. But to love God, you have to make that decision to follow God, to put away your old life and follow him in obedience.

I think that loving God with all your strength is exactly that. It takes all your strength at times to love God with your heart, soul and mind. You get so wrapped up in earthly things, that putting your mind on God takes strength. It takes work. It takes devotion, fellowship, and friendship. You have to be devoted to God, you need to be with other Christians, and you need friends of like minds to keep your strength up in loving God. Each Christian depends on each other to be there for them. We need each other to encourage and lift each other up to the Lord in prayer. That is what keeps our strength up in the Lord.