LOVE IS! 1/15/12

JUST HOW MANY books have been written entitled “Love is?”
Teeny tiny ones; small; medium and regular size books have been purchased by many of you. Have you thought; “I could write my own!” I think you could. We all have experienced love in many different sizes, shapes and ways. At the time we don’t exactly classify it as love, but in retrospect we know that it is.

I LOVE the one that says; “Love is mud prints on your back!” I remember mud being tracked on my freshly mopped kitchen floor. I remember muddy shoes and trousers that I needed to clean before I washed them. I remember mud pies and catching little muddy hands before the pies made it into their little mouths. The first time I read that, I said; “now just where is the love in the mud?” Aging allows us to find the love in mud; in bugs and in just about anything that makes up the world we have journeyed through. I am talking about the journey of raising children. Even if you did not have children of your own, you know exactly what I am talking about.

CHILDREN grow up and it may surprise you that the mud prints on your back are still there. I see a little boy and a little girl many times when I am looking at my adult children. I have watched my grandson’s in the same way. The problem is that those pictures of muddy shoes and hands can still be seen when they walk into a room with strength and purpose, and yes, with graying at the temple.

THE ONLY difference today, is now they plan without your approval. They make their own arrangements and they might share them with you, or not! “Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old, they will not depart from it!” Proverbs 22:6 Many of us have raised our children in a Christian atmosphere; home and church. Many have gone their own directions when they grew up. My understanding is that they will return when the going gets tough. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:1-4

I THANK THE LORD every day for my husband Jim and my two children; my daughter-in-law and my three grandsons. I praise His goodness within our walls. I know that every day is a day by day journey and that things could change drastically. But today is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it. I praise God that my little family walks with the Lord today!

JIM AND I will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary the end of this month. A couple of nights ago, Danny, Faye and Jennifer planned and executed a ‘surprise’ party in our honor with our weekly Bible Study group. This group has become family, because we not only have been together for a lot of years but our common bond is Jesus Christ. They were all there with their congratulations and well wishes for more years to come. Jim and I were totally surprised and blessed!

LOVE IS having grown children that think about your pleasures and go about it in their own personal best ways, to create an evening that is not soon forgotten. These same children when they were 25 years younger, gave us another ‘surprise’ anniversary party to celebrate our 25th. I am excited to be around when my son and his beautiful wife celebrate theirs. But for their 50th, they will have loving children to share it with. That is God's plan for His Christian families!

LOVE IS the theme of a Christian home! LOVE IS the theme of Christian parents! LOVE IS the theme of Christian children. It can be in every home because it is written; “Let us love one another, for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God...for God is love!” 1 John 4:7-8 Write your own little book of LOVE IS and “taste and see that the Lord is Good!” Psalms 34:8
By Jane Ann Crenshaw 1/12/12