Heavens to Betsy, it’s mid-July already!

The June flags have been stored away and I can easily say that, so far this summer, I have barely had a chance to catch my breath with all the goings-on in my tiny space of this world!

Great joys, amidst deep sorrows.

Mountain top moments combined with deep valleys traveled through.

And yet, there has been immense abiding grace.

Through everything – I have learned (and in some ways have re-learned,) a number of things about love and perhaps, something about myself. It (all of it) really comes down to the decision we all must make: To love or not to love. Yes, as cliche as it sounds, that is the ultimate question.

God is love and commands His children to live in love, grow in love, mature in love, share in love, and show to the world the difference that love in living can make.

One of my favorite working definitions of love is… LOVE is an action directed to another person that is motivated by our relationship to Jesus Christ and is given freely without a personal reward in mind!

And so it is, we are confronted with one of the greatest choices in life: To love or not to love; to love in word or to love in action; to live a self-focused life or a self-less life; to live for God or to live for self; to live for others or to live for self-interests.

The greatest rewards in life come out of a lifestyle lived in love!

Together, let’s make the following commitments: The first commitment is to love God with heart, mind, and soul. The second is to commit to a life of bearing the fruit of love. The third is to learn how to love your neighbor as yourself.

Isn’t it amazing that God has chosen us as instruments in order to funnel His love through us for others?

WE are to become a delivery system for God’s love!

My prayer is that your life will forever be changed because of all the positive steps you will take that will enable you to live in LOVE!

There are two stories I came across this past month which depict such love in action, both are true stories. The first example is a short synopsis of the sacrifice of one’s life for the love of another, the second is a more lengthy video/pod-cast (you choose,) worth every second of listening to – regarding a self-less sacrifice, equally for the love of God.

The first true story took place in the Ravensbruck concentration camp, where during World War II Nazis put to death some 92,000 women and children. It was a “Good Friday” and a group of women were lined up for the gas chamber. One of them became hysterical. From the crowd of other women, not chosen for death on that day, a figure emerged and approached the woman broken by fear and hysteria. She said, “It’s all right. It’s all right. I’ll take your place.” That woman was Elizabeth Pilenko, who came from a very wealthy family in the south of Russia and eventually became a nun to work among the poor of that region. During the war, the convent in which she ministered became a safe house for many fleeing Jews. When the Gestapo came to the convent, on a tip from an informer, “Mother Maria” (as Elizabeth Pilenko was called) was arrested and sent to Ravensbruck. There she made a lasting impression on other prisoners – even the guards spoke of her as “that wonderful Russian nun.” It is hard to understand how one human being can take the place of another condemned to death, other than this is an action of the fruit of the Spirit working out in human form. Love in action….

This next example can be listened to either through the podcast link below or watched through the attached youtube episode. (They are the same interview.) No matter the method you chose to listen, either shall leave you walking away witnessing love in action…

Podcast link:

https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=1097862282&i=1000617848120

hugs n’ blessings sent out to EVERYONE because…the fruit of the Spirit will always be LOVE!