Love is...

I had a chance to spend some time with a close friend of mine last night & through our conversation my thoughts were stirred in thinking about how did I know I was in love with my husband? And I never really thought of it too much, I guess you could say that I just knew I loved him but then it hit me...Anthony is my best friend, he has stood by me through so much the past four years and I am amazed at the man that he has become. We were once told by his grandfather that before we got married we needed to know that we were each other's best friend because if not it wasn't going to work. He said that if we didn't "like" each other that we needed to just walk away because in the end after our kids have grown up and moved away it would be just us left and we had to realize that really that was all that mattered, we were friends. You see I can say that Anthony truly is my best friend, we can sit and talk for hours about nonsense and have a good time. He colors in coloring books with me when I am sick and we enjoy board games together, we go to disneyland and just enjoy each other's company...that's how I know that I am madly in love with my husband...the most intimate part of our relationship is our friendship the part that is completely unhidden from each other where we are not afraid to be ourselves and we are not worried about rejection, or any lingering questions about feelings, we are unveiled with each other and it is the most freeing feeling I have ever experienced! We have truly become ONE.

Praise the Lord because He is good and His word is so true! He says that a man and a woman would leave their parents and cleave together and they would no longer be two but one flesh and they would become one. AMEN!

So I love my husband because my love for him is patient, kind, not rude, not boastful, not easily irritated, not able to rejoice over bad but I rejoice with him in good, my love for him never fails and is true.

Wait on the Lord because He will provide you with the strength to patiently seek HIM until the perfect timining wheh He decides to bring you to the one He created you for. Only good can come to those who wait on the Lord.

God Bless

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Valentines Day...True Love

Valentines...today was a revelation of my heart and the high expectations and standards I have set in regards to love...at work today there was deliveries of flowers, balloons and talks of romantic dinners planned for the night and of course there were the ones who complained how valentines was overrated and obviously a conspiracy of the hallmark corporation. But then I caught wind of a conversation between two women while working, they were basically agreeing that Valentines has set unrealistic demands on people and places a pressure to fulfill the most romantic dream of our loved one. And as I thought of that I realized that is what I have been doing to my poor poor Fiance! Earlier that day he had walked all the way from Bellflower to my job in Cerritos and when he got there I asked him if he had bought me something for Valentines. He of course said no, seeing that he has not been working and I of course put him on a guilt trip...he was of course hurt and left...you see because I had seen my coworkers getting flowers delivered and heard of their romantic plans I was expecting Anthony to fulfill those unspoken desires and dreams of a romantic evening myself...however I had failed to remember that Anthony does not read minds, and cannot in no way be able to supply that type of night for me financially. You see I think that today we are so blinded by the expectations and standards that the world sets on us romantically! With the movies, music and books out there that place all of these rules and unrealistic images of what love looks like in our minds, it does in fact, place a tremendous amount of pressure on us.

I should be thanking the Lord that because of Him I know what real love is! That I don't need the flowers, diamond rings, candy or cards that the world says means we love each other. Not that any of these things are bad in an of themselves...but I think we have to remember as a believer in Christ, we are called to LOVE one another fervently daily...to place another's needs above our own and to reach out to the body of Christ in love...this is real LOVE. And I am thankful that Anthony has shown me that he loves me through dying to self and respecting me, my boundaries and my relationship with Jesus Christ and by doing things that would not hinder my walk with the Lord. You see the world says..."if you love me, sleep with me, fulfill this need I have," the Lord says, "wait, because what I have promised you is beautiful..." The world tells us that it is with money and possessions a person is made rich, and the Lord tells us that we store our treasures in heaven where no thief, moth, nor rust would get to them (Matthew 6:19-20). The world tells us that we need to take what we can, lust is pleasing, fast paced is not quick enough and if it is broke...throw it away but the Lord has given us the true definition of Love...
1Corinthians 13:4-7 "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."

And after being completely convicted of how I had acted today with Anthony, I realized that instead of wanting something that the world says I need, I needed to be content with what the Lord has given me in the season that I am in. I realized that I was not acting in LOVE towards Anthony and I was allowing the WORLD to shape my standards and expectations for this day...yes the WORLD sets aside one day a year to celebrate a love that is fueled by LUST and SELFISHNESS but the Lord has called us to a LOVE that is SELFLESS and SELF SACRIFICING, and this was demonstrated when JESUS CHRIST laid down HIS life, HIS deity, HIS own self and submitted to the will of the Father on the cross just for me...for us...and this is the Love that we as Christians...or Believers in JESUS CHRIST need to practice daily in our lives...even with the unlovable ones, the ones that hurt us. The world may show love one day a year, and yet those same people buying candies, and flowers and diamonds will turn around and be unfaithful to their spouses, or curse out another person for cutting them off on the freeway, but we as believers are called to more than that...and so to us we celebrate LOVE everyday as we remember the example of our Savior.

AS A CHRISTIAN, A FOLLOWER, A STUDENT AND A LOVER OF JESUS CHRIST WE MUST STAND UP AND REALIZE THAT THE WORLD IS NOT OUR STANDARD OF LIVING BUT JESUS CHRIST IS...

OUR WEALTH AND WORTH IS NOT MEASURED BUT WHAT WE HAVE OR WHO WE KNOW...BUT BY WHOM WE SERVE AND BY WHO BORE OUR CROSS...

with much love ...

Angelia

Happy valentines day!