LOVE

So I've been thinking a lot lately about LOVE.  In the Bible one of the greatest commandments, second only to love the Lord thy God, is love your neighbor as thyself.  In this we see the heart of God.  I've been thinking a lot about love lately because I'm trying to figure out if my heart is in harmony with God's heart or if I'm completely out of tune.  We are in the process of adopting two adorable girls from Haiti, which has been a ride!  The love that we have for these two girls is such a different feeling than we've ever had before.  It's not more or less than our biological girls but just a lot different. 

When my husband and I got married I knew it wasn't going to be easy but I didn't think I was going to be able to just FALL out of love with him.  I figured that would just be a feeling I felt FOREVER.  Boy was I wrong.  In the times that I didn't feel like I loved my husband I thought that that's just the way it goes.  It took me a couple years and a couple of Godly people to tell me that's not the way it goes.

The thing it comes down to is that when you don't feel love for someone, even if you have in the past, you still have to CHOOSE to love that person.  God doesn't just want us to love the loveable, or the ones that will give love back, He wants us to love EVERYBODY.  In Matthew 5:43-48 it talks about the idea of loving your enemy!  WHAT!?!  And not only loving them but blessing them, doing good to them, and PRAYING for them!  Wow.  What a different way to look at people right?  So even when people are flat out annoying, or flat out rude, or flat out mean to me... I'm supposed to love them anyway?!?  The answer to that question according to these verses is obvious.  The answer is yes!  This will set us apart from others and people will wonder why we are so loving to people who aren't necessarily accepting of us.  My prayer today is Lord help me to love ALL people.