LEARNING LOVE

When Eve bit in to that fruit... in the Garden of Eden...we lost so much...... We've heard sermons about how that sin separated us from God. And it did. And so...
we lost eternal life... and...
.... we lost eternal LOVE.

We gained Fear.
Hiding. Shame. Envy.
Jealousy. Anger. Lust. Greed. Insecurity.
Doubt.  Hopelessness.

We grabbed doing our own thing.. and..
we lost LOVE.

I think that's what must have broken our Father's heart the most.  That... we didn't know we were letting go of the one thing we would always crave...... LOVE. REAL. LOVE.  Without realizing it... we spend our lives spinning our wheels.. looking for that LOVE that we lost... disappointed we cannot find it in a marriage.. or a child... or a job.. or a career.. or success... or anywhere.  We keep being disappointed in people because we keep expecting people to not disappoint us.

God is LOVE. God is HOLY.  Love is a holy thing.. and we cannot... in our humanity ever really grasp it.  Know it. Give it. Accept it.  Unless we allow God, through His Word and through the Holy Spirit to teach it to us.

And in retrospect... with the advantage of many decades of life.. I have finally ... finally gotten a glimpse of the ONE lesson God is trying to teach through every situation of my life..
He is teaching me love.
I am learning love.

I am learning to receive it.
I am learning to believe it.

What does LEARNING LOVE have to do with LEARNING about marriage?

(Wait... wait... I'm.. wait...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahalollolololrofl.. lol... hahahah...rofl........hahahaha... (gasp.. breath.. gasp...) hahahahaha... lol...lol... hahahahahahahahahahaha...)

EVERYTHING.

What does LOVE have to do with being a Christian? a wife? a friend? a mother?

EVERYTHING

I don't think God is counting the dollars you put in the offering plate.. or the small groups you teach at church... or the solos you sing on the worship team..or the blogs you write to help others.... or the missionary trips you take to foreign countries... as much as He is counting the LOVE you have in your heart.  Do you ever truly ask yourself if you are a person of love? Does love matter to you at all?

For the next few blogs... I'm gonna talk about how I have been forced to "learn love."

And how thankful I am that God wouldn't let me slither out of the main lesson He is trying to teach.  

I don't know what you are facing today.. but I can guarantee you that at the bottom of the pile of multiple reasons God could be allowing it in your life...you will find... that God's main reason for it is for you to LEARN LOVE.
I'm not saying learning TO love..
I'm saying learning what LOVE is..

If you don't grasp love.... you can never grasp God.
If you don't grasp love.. you can never grasp marriage.

Are you up for it?  I'm still learning... I know I will be a student of love until the day I breathe my last breath...
I am no expert on love.. but... we can learn together.
It won't be easy to learn to accept the kind of love God offers.
It won't be easy to give the kind of love God offers.
It won't be easy to BE the kind of love God expects His children to be.

But... when a person understands that learning love is where all of life begins....
Then...
well...
Then...

O.K. more in the next blog.
XO..
Mrs. Older
(And once again let me say thank you to the people who have recently signed up to receive this blog via email.  I am dumbfounded with what word of mouth can do.  Thank you. Thank you. I am HONORED that you would allow this blog to come to your email in box.)