“LOVE”
Good Morning and Happy Valentines Day!!! I probably need to be careful here. Right now I feel like I am kicking radiation and chemotherapy in the butt! Yesterday I rode 8 miles on my stationary bike and rowed 2,000 meters on my rower. Not my fastest times but keeping my time close to what would be normal for me. I go to bed at 8:30 every night which is a little odd but also get up at 4:30am. So in my humble opinion, radiation and chemotherapy are not winning! I guess I also hope they are actually helping. Will find out mid-March when I get my next MRI.
Okay, today is a great day to talk about “LOVE” for a minute.
I have never been a big fan of Valentines Day. I always had some idea that loving our wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, was something we needed to work on every day. But today I am thinking, maybe I need a special day or a simple reminder to do some things well. So, a couple of ideas.
This is flowing out of my thoughts around this verse of scripture. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.” This shows up serval times in scripture and it has been a big idea for me personally. In Matthew, Jesus literally says, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two ideas.” That’s a very significant statement.
Back to this idea of V-day and loving someone well. I have been married for 33 years to an amazing women. At some point I began to call her “Beautiful.” I honestly don’t remember when that started. To me, and it’s not a competition. She is the most beautiful women I know. Her beauty to me probably initially started with her physical beauty but over the years it’s much more about who she is as my wife, friend, lover, mom, grandmother, teacher, principle, leader and so much more. She is a Beautiful woman and person.
If I am being completely honest I have not always loved her well. Early in our marriage I was much more self-centered and focused on what made me feel happy and loved, than on making loving her well, a priority. I have worked on that for years and years. I am better at it today but still imperfect at times.
The biggest challenge in having a terminal brain tumor for me is not, I will die. The biggest challenge is trying to understand, support and deal with the reality, that my wife is going to have to walk through this painful process and then live her life without me physically present in her life. That is very hard for me to make peace with.
Here is the second idea today and related to the text. How do we love someone well? That’s a little tricky and especially if you have not been loved well.
Jesus makes this statement. “Love your neighbor as yourself!!!!” Where this text really began to have a huge impact in my life was when I realized I can’t love my wife, my children, family or friends well if I don’t “love myself well.” Have you ever looked at it that way? And, do you love yourself well?
Maybe Valentines Day starts with a little focus and thought on that question. Do you love yourself well? What I discovered personally and in my ministry and counseling work is this. If you do not love yourself well, you will not love anyone else well!
Please consider and think about that idea. Much of my personal work over the years has been focused on learning how to love myself well. For me, part of self-love is tied to my understanding of how much God loves me. Knowing God’s love absolutely helps us get through some of the pain and suffering that we all will experience in this life.
So, Happy Valentines Day! Let some people know today how much they are loved. Tell yourself, how much you are loved. I want you to have some understanding of that truth. You are of great value and loved!
Have a great day and stay warm.
Peace,