Happy Valentines Day!

Okay, it is the day after, but I hope you had a great day! While this is a day of love... often thought of as romantic love, I hope you felt the love of our Lord on this day. In John 15:12-14, Jesus said, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command." Jesus loved us so much, he gave his life for us. That is love! Then He asks us to do the same. To love others with a sacrificial love... even being willing to give our lives for them and for Him. Maybe in our lives here in the USA, we would not likely be asked to literally give our lives, but figuratively shouldn't we be giving our lives as an act of worship? We can give our lives to serve our families, to serve our friends, our neighbors, strangers, or even... our enemies! Ouch! Love is hard to give like Christ gave expecting nothing in return. In this "It's all about me" culture or "Take care of #1" culture, it is hard to stay focused on God's Command and LOVE others. I, for one, need to love more sacrificially. I need to love the unlovable. The only way we can do this is to allow Christ to love THROUGH us. And the only way we can do that is to have Christ dwell IN us. If He's going to dwell in us, we have to ask Him to come into our lives, forgive us of our sins, and make us a new creation. Then we need to SPEND TIME WITH HIM.

Boy, isn't that hard in our busy lives? But how essential. I can come up with great excuses why my "quiet time" hardly exsists. First of all, it is rarely quiet in our house with 4 kids... and now when it is, I'm wanting to catch a little nap with our 5th little blessing on the way. So the first thing I have to get over is the phrase "QUIET time." I need to meet God in the midst of my situation. He's here just waiting. So, can you lift up a little prayer for me during your "Quiet Time" that I will meet God in the midst of our busyness & noise? I need MORE of Him... less of Me... so I can LOVE my 4 blessings like Christ loves them. I want them to see HIM in me... NOT ME! Please pray that I love them with an unselfish love!

Well, that wasn't really the purpose of my post this morning. That was I guess what I needed to hear today. I hope you didn't mind listening in. =0) I wanted to post some cute pix I took of the kids yesterday. I also wanted to tell you that Dano & I got to go on a date! (That is VERY rare!) We have some friends who also have 4 kids about the same age as ours. They kept our kids last night, & we're keeping their kids tonight! What a blessing!

Yesterday was the 20th Anniversary of when Dano & I met... WOW! Does that make us old? Some days, I think so! =0) Well, enjoy your day. May you find time to spend with our Lord. Wait, I guess we all need to MAKE time. He's waiting.

Blessings,

Melinda

I took the "group" picture when we got home from church Thursday morning. Wesley fell asleep on the way home & was konked out. I layed him in his pack n play, & he stayed asleep! I took his "individual shots" after lunch! He's a mess! He's 14 months old now & busy!