A snowy Friday morning.

We woke up this morning to a white winter day. Snow was filling the yard and flowing all along the paths around the house into the woods.   I read a book last night called "Love in the House".  It was a very good book.  I learned so much.  I know the love thing is the most important thing.  We think to ourselves, "if we could just get the love thing down."  We say I love you, but what do we mean when we say that.  Now we all know that we love our children deeply.  We have given up so many things for them. So why the issue of, the love thing.  Love is more than a deep feeling. It is more than supplying another persons needs and even desires. It is a attitude thing.  It is how we respond to others around us.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says
 4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
 8 ¶ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Before these verses it says we can feed the poor and give our body to be burned but that is not considered love.  So just what can we call love.  It is not obviously what we do. Maybe it is how we do it.  I have spent a lot of time worrying of what to do, but have failed to check my attitude of how I do it.  It seems here these verses are talking about attitude.  I think I could compare this to works without faith.  Love without good attitude is like works without faith.  It means nothing.  If you at all respond in a way that says to the other person you are irritating me you have just left the ream of love.  If you have works without having faith you are saying you have control and not God.  Faith produces works. Works do not produce faith.  Love produces giving.  Giving does not produce love.  I think we think if we do all this giving of ourself our kids will have to know that we love them, but remember Gods ways are not our ways.  Boy when you get this you have to eat a lot of humble pie.   We should deny ourself, take up the cross, and walk daily.  That is all about attitude.  We can do all this stuff but what about our attitude and staying humble.  Do we do it because we want to feel good and be proud of ourselves, or are we really thinking more about God and the other people in our life.  We all know that we are to love God and love others and all other commandments relate to them, but do we know really what love is?   How do we have a good attitude.  The heart is the issue.  We must have a heart of love.  We must soften our heart and let God transform it through much prayer and Bible reading and time before him.  We must change our idea that we have to read through the Bible in a year or whatever our sayings are, and read the Bible begging God to put his ways in our heart. Prayer and fasting with a deep desire to know God.  Do we take the time to seek God?  Now with this attitude of love most of us feel compelled to betray to others; we are kind to people sometimes even when we don't want to.  We sort  of put on a show, but the show will show its real attitude when we are around our children.  They can see through us because they are so much like us.  And we tend to let our guard down with our family. 
  That is where they call us hypocrites.  They are looking to us to be real and they see our fakeness.  They decide,  "we don't want that so they go overboard doing what they want seeking happiness and a good attitude.  Some go the right direction struggling with the same things we did, and some go the wrong way.  They choose a route. Many choose the wrong path. Now children have to choose there destiny but shouldn't we direct them in the right direction.  I see a lot of parents in the same boat I am in.  We want to do right but we are not spending the time with God like we should.  We falter at the drop of a hat.  The least little thing, and we drop this part of our life.  Let's make a commitment to seek Gods love and ask him for it daily.  It is free and it only comes from him.  We just have to except it.  And one day we will get up and see his snowy white love shining all around us, feeling our hearts and flowing through our attitude. 
Bonnie