Evenings like this....

I watch the landscape change as we drive home from dinner out.
It has been a nice evening, great food, a menu in English and I didn't stand out from the crowd.
We pass the sports complex.
Soft, green, manicured grass, lights on the softball field. Men, mid-thirties toss balls and kick up dust and slap each other on the back , "at-a-boys" abound. I see my husband glance over his shoulder, the lights reflecting in his eyes.
I know he wants those moments. On a field like that, on a night like this. I would be comfortable in the stands, I would fit right in to this....

We would walk back to the suburban after the game, camping chairs and kids in tow. He would recount each play, ask if I had seen him catch that fly-ball like a maniac. I would pat his sweaty back and say "yeah Babe, that was awesome!" We would smile. He would glory. The boys would sport-talk with Dad all the way home. He would revel. I would laugh.

After showers and kiddo bed-time and monogrammed Pottery Barn pillow-cases, we would lie in bed and small talk about our day, our "stuff". He would tell me about work, I'd remind him about upcoming dinner plans with friends. We'd talk about house renovation, maybe a vacation...we'd plot our course, navigate our way through the American Dream.

It is the life that will never be, the dream that merely passes through my mind on evenings like this.

Thoughts about love...

Thank you to my lovely friend, Sara Reimer, for introducing me to a fabulous online devotional at: http://www.adisciplesnotebook.com/

I have been reading this site each morning as I sit down with my coffee to spend some time with Jesus and I have been so blessed. Right now, God is speaking to me about loving authentically and being an encourager instead of a critic. This devotion was a perfect one for me to meditate on this morning. The site also has lovely background music and birds chirping so you feel like you're on a blanket in a park somewhere listening to someone to play the harp while the birds tweet in the trees. Love.


Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:8 (ESV)
~~~

God is love. This statement helps define who God is. The new commandment our Lord Jesus gave us is to love one another like He loves us (John 13:34). He said that this would be our witness to the world that we are His (John 13:35). We are to love the just and the unjust like He does (Matthew 5:43-48). The fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). His love flowing out of us like rivers [abundance] of living water should define who we are (John 7:38). Practically what does this kind of love look like?
~~~

“I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you.
I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you.
I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you
and want you to have the best.
I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours.
I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself.
I am not rude because I love you and care about your feelings.
I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs.
I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses.
I do not keep a record of your wrongs because I love you,
and ‘love covers a multitude of sins.’ “

Jerry Bridges
Action Statements based on 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
The Discipline of Grace, p. 39