I want to first thank Pastor Hartman and church staff for orchestrating and supporting such a convicting and needed message series. By reading the stories posted, I believe that God’s word is penetrating the hearts of His people and this church.
God is teaching me to appreciate and recognize the small loving touches He sends my way everyday: a smile from a stranger, a kind word from a friend, a beautiful sunset, a single breath. Recently, my friend had a baby. I wanted to send a gift so I called the hospital gift shop. The staff spent 30 minutes assisting me in designing the perfect gift basket. They lovingly wrote the words I wanted to say in a card and hand delivered the gift to my friend. As soon as I put down the phone, God whispered “See how much I love you! These were the people I picked to help you show love to one of my children.” I wrote a thank you note to the staff, recognizing the fact that they truly showed God’s love to me that day. It’s the little things that make life special!
Sunday afternoon, our boys were playing a Wii game together. Being BROTHERS, this can sometimes get competitive and ugly. It was beginning to head that way when our youngest stopped, breathed in quickly and covered his mouth (as if something was wrong). He then muttered, “Oh man!!! I forgot my Bible verse said that love is patient and kind!”
LOVE IT!! 
Last week we started The Love Challenge as a family and we decided to engage our 6 and 4 yr old boys by playing the “That’s Love” game. We challenged them to be loving to one another, to us and everyone they connect with. When one of them catches someone doing something loving they are to say out loud “THAT’S LOVE”, so they will know love when they see it. So, day one goes fairly well because it is fresh in our minds, but by the end of the week we are slacking off. By the Tuesday, I am thinking we are ALL going to need another refresher on the rules of the game but I was pleasantly surprised by my 4 year old, Jaden on our way to a special family night out. Big Brother Cameron wanted to be unbuckled from his car seat “first”, and Jaden said “O.K.” You can go first”. I recognized his genuinely selfless attitude, and commended him saying “That was awesome Jaden, you are being so kind to let your brother go first”. To which he beamed a smile and said ” I’m choosing to be patient, because That’s Love!” I am amazed that they really understand that in this game everyone wins… even when you choose to be last.
“I am very challenged to love others the way God wants… and I am excited to see what God will do in all of us in the coming weeks. I just got my journal.”
We got our journal last week and have started using it. Overall it is a very useful tool in organizing your thoughts on what is a change in how we would want to see the world. This series so far seems to point out that we all have different challenges when it comes to our relationships and this (pointing to the journal) is a way to help and address these issues so we can rise above it in order to lead a happier life and more rewarding relationships including our marriages, friendships, our children, and people we may only come across once in our lives.
