http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=283635
Here is the link from this weekend...we made the local news in Branson!
Here is the devotional entry from Jodelle....
we love our Missouri family!
Zephaniah 3:17 –
“The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."
Yesterday was a day that I’ll always remember when I think back on my life. Try this: Take a moment and mentally scan back over the course of your life. What are the most vivid memories that come to mind? What days stand out among the rest? A specific day that someone made you feel special, like your parents giving you something you always wanted? Your wedding day? A tragic event? A birth? A death? The day someone told you they loved you? The day someone told you they didn’t? A reunion? A day you did something special to show love for someone else? Now, what do each of these memories and days have in common? They all center around love….on your wedding day, it was a day filled with love. The day your child was born, you created love and felt love. The day someone you loved died, you lost love. On a special birthday, people made you feel loved. A reunion was loved reunited and rekindled. The tragic event you were involved in made you realize how precious love is. A day you gave love away made you realize how good it felt to do so, and how you found it in return. Our lives are solely based on love. The normal mundane days where it was just the same ol’, same ol’ don’t stand out, and you can’t even hardly recall a normal day, but you can definitely recall the day and where you were when someone first said “I love you” to you. We live for love.
Yesterday, I paddled 11 miles to raise money for my friends’, the Boyces and their two children, and the reason it will stand out in my mind is not anything that I did, but what everyone else did around me. People showed up for the launch and cheered on the family, and wore purple (the Sanfilippo Awareness color) to show their love and support. In my support boats, there was laughter and good times, and I smiled as I stroked through the water listening to all the fun and love that was being experienced on the boats. People in other boats that saw us started donating just based on the pure love they had in their hearts when they heard what was going on with the family. Upon my landing at my destination, there was a party planned for the family and I thrown by other loving family and friends. The whole day was focused and filled with love, and it was a day I’ll never forget no matter how many times I reflect back on my life.
As disciples and lovers of God, we should let our lives experience as many of these memories and days as possible. We should have fewer of the the mundane, same ol’, same ol’ days and have more the days where we look back and remember the memories of love and how we experienced it. Our days here are numbered and life is too short to miss out on oppurtunities to give love and experience love since it is the core of our existence. Even sad experiences with love can be good because we can learn how to love greater, and shine God through them. I encourage each of us to live for love and live a life of love making the most of each relationship and each day. Doing so will give us many wonderful days filled with love to reflect back on over the course of life rather than just one or two days. We are designed by God to love and be loved. So, set a trend today of living everyday as to how you can love better, and live love to the fullest of your potential.
Love, You have designed me for such a time as this. I want to serve you at such a time as this with my whole being and all the love I have to give. Please give me many oppurtunities to create memories of love that affect others in order to bring them closer to you so that they may experience a life of love too. May I pay Your love forward and spur others on to do the same. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
