Everyday Living

Perhaps Love Will Be Yours Today

~ Everyday Living, Faith, roses, Valentines Day

 “We love because he first loved us”
‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭19

 Happy Valentine’s Day sweet friends.  I rarely post on Wednesdays, but this beautiful post written by my Renaissance Man popped up on my Facebook Memories.  As I read it, I thought this is too good not to revisit.  We have so many new readers since this was published three years ago.  I have updated the post and am hopeful it will speak to you as it did to me!

“Perhaps love is like a resting place, a shelter from the storm
It exists to give you comfort, it is there to keep you warm
And in those times of trouble when you are most alone
The memory of love will bring you home

Perhaps love is like a window, perhaps an open door
It invites you to come closer, it wants to show you more
And even if you lose yourself and don’t know what to do
The memory of love will see you through”
-John Denver

John wrote and sang a beautiful song that speaks somewhat to the human condition when it comes to this thing called love.  In our humanness we must constantly work on loving and being loved..it isn’t automatic.  I’ve heard a lot about “love at first sight”.  Even so, it’s not “boom, got ‘er done.”  Only Christ, on a cross, in that moment of love’s greatest expression and demonstration can proclaim “It is Finished”.  (John 19:30) 

I’ve heard it said that people don’t really “fall in love”.  Those holding this view usually insist that love is really a choice we make.  We choose to love-period!  Plus nothing, minus nothing.  I personally believe that both falling and choosing are true. They are intertwined and together encompass “being in love”.

Pam and I will celebrate our 45th anniversary this month, and we’ve known each other almost 48 years.  It is fact that when it comes to this “love” business we have both made thousands of choices.  Choices that focus on our love for each other over the course of many years.  And those choices are what nourishes our love and causes it to continue to grow.

But I do remember and still cherish those memories of the first sight, the first date, the conversations and the getting to know each other.  Going places together, laughing, listening to our favorite songs, and just having fun. Then this indescribable, exciting, nervous, giddy feeling started slowly coming over me at certain times and special moments.  The frequency increased and one day I realized through all of this…“I’ve been falling…and I like it!”  Once I knew I was “falling”,   I started “choosing”, and also praying that Pam was “falling”.

If you want to accept love being 100% choosing, then that is absolutely fine.  Just don’t attempt to take away my falling-it’s too sweet and too real!  It’s not possible to pinpoint an exact time it happened, therefore it is a process.  Hence, falling-present tense; not fell-past tense.
Still ongoing!

Don’t let love die!  Water it with “falling”to keep it alive…vibrant and fresh.  Nourish it with “choosing” to give strength and allow new growth.

Best of all-God loves all of us and demonstrated His love through Christ while we were unlovely and unloveable.  A choice, yes!  God doesn’t need us, per se.  He is complete, lacking nothing.  So, our love for Him adds nothing to Him, and our lack of love for Him takes nothing away from Him.  But He chose and chooses to set His affections upon us, regardless.  He chooses to dwell with us and in us.  And that is love, because God is love.  He just is.

A line in a chorus I wrote a long time ago says
“I wish I could love Him as much as He loves me; Jesus Christ is everything I need”

 

  Linking with:
 Pieced Pastimes, Life on Lakeshore Drive,Coastal Charm, Dwellings-Heart of Your Home, Savvy Southern Style, French Country Cottage, Stone Gable, Confessions of a Plate Addict, Worthing Court, Between Naps on the Porch, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, A Stroll Thru Life, The Charm of Home, Katherines Corner,Petit Haus, Follow The Yellow Brick Home,  Vintage Mama’s Cottage, Marilyn’s Treats Eclectic Red Barn, Share Your Cup,21 Rosemary Lane,The Vintage Nest, The Essence Of Home, Feathering My Empty Nest, Kingsbury Brook Farm,  The Red Painted Cottage, Love Of Home,My Soulful Home, Celebrating Everyday Life, Little Farmstead, Starfish Cottage, Rustic & Refined,The Freckled Rose, Life and Linda, DIY 180, Celebrate & Decorate, Sweet Sensations, The Dedicated House, Jodie Fitz, The Design Twins, Happy Nester, Modern Glam Home, Shabby Fufu, Designthusiasm, Imparting Grace, Calypso in the Country

 

Comments

  2. Beautiful post with profound truths. Thank you for the example you set for loving Christ and how you know him as well as how you love Pam.
    I am glad you shared this again. I’m not sure I had found you when this was published.

    Reply

  4. Dear Pam and Butch, I confess that this message that Butch has written has moved me to tears … But you should not feel bad about it, it is the emotion of reading a message full of love towards you Pam and towards Christ and in addition to all others, because when you love yourself like this, Love is mixed with the skin and you can not separate, you become a lover.
    What to say about the words of the much admired John, who in each verse has left a bit of his being, of his love for life, for nature, for his fellow men, that is, for God.
    Happy Day, a very special hug
    Dolores

    Reply

    • Nuestra querida Dolores, ¡siempre eres tan amable! Todavía me maravillo de habernos conocido a través del blog de alguien. ¡Tus comentarios siempre nos traen sonrisas! Mandar amor y abrazos, Pam y Butch

      Reply

  6. Butch is 100 percent spot on about falling and choosing. This is such a beautiful post, Pam. He’s a wonderful writer and you two seem so well matched in so many ways. Happy valentine’s Day!

    Reply

  8. Both Bob and I have read this today. This was a very sweet surprise and so beautifully written. I also believe that God is LOVE and we love because he first loved us. God is the center of our marriage also. God intended us to fall in love by his own design and I also believe love is a choice. It is easy to love the lovely but sometimes it is difficult to love the unlovely. God expects us to love all. How wonderful to keep finding ways to fall in love. Last year I had to have surgery and I fell in love with Bob all over again in new and different ways. I wrote him a poem called “Love Digs Deep”. The two of you are models for us. You all would be great doing marriage seminars. Have a very happy day together.

    Reply

  12. Such beautiful faith and love. Today marks not only Valentine’s Day, but also Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Thank you Butch for this lovely post.

    Reply

  15. Oh Pam…. you lucky girl. Your man is such a wonderful, loving man. Congrats on your 45 years together. You must have been a toddler when you got married. Happy Valentines Day.

    Reply

  16. Happy Valentine’s Day Pam and Butch. I am so glad I read this today. It melted my old heart! Hugs and blessings, Cindy

    Reply

  17. Beautiful post.

    I think if we could all truly grasp the love God has for us we wouldn’t do the things we do. I love the notion that God “Loved” us into existence. Remembering that helps me bring love to others.

    Happy Valentine’s Day!

    Blessings,
    Elizabeth 🙂

    Reply

  18. I stumbled on to your blog today and then spent some time reading about your amazing story. I love it when the Lord leads me to other brothers and sisters and I am beginning to just expect it. You both are such a blessing. Thank you for being such encouragers. We have a home in Eufaula AL and when you spoke in your story about the bread run to Midway it made me search your blog just trying to figure where you all are from and in my reading and searching I know that I will want to return to your blog again. Happy Valentine’s day and if you are ever driving through Eufaula and see me on the porch please stop in for a sweet tea! And where I think this all tgets really funny is just this morning for the first time I called my love my Renaissance man. You just can’t question God’s leading on this. For whatever reason He wanted me to find you all.
    Blessings,
    Becky

    Reply

    • Becky, I am so glad that you found us yesterday! Your comments are so encouraging. We live in Gadsden. I do hope you will return often! I love when God brings us together in unusual ways! Blessings, Pam

      Reply

  22. What a lovely, lovely post. Oh, the love we have to celebrate and to share–thank God!

    Thanks for joining the Grace at Home party at Imparting Grace. I’m featuring you this week!

    Reply

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