Rachael my SWEET... As our love has grown, my understanding of love has grown. What it really is... what it takes... and you have shown me. You have said on a few occasions that love is a choice... a choice that we must make even when the going gets rough. I agree. True love is willing to make that choice to love no matter the circumstances... and I am willing to love you as you ought to be loved. I know I have mentioned that I need to be inspired in order for me to write, and I just want you to know that I have spent the past 4 1/2 months being inspired... by you.
In our first marriage counseling session with our Pastor, he asked us a question. That question was, "what is love." At first I had a hard time answering the question. To me the meaning is complicated... the meaning is... well... meaningful. I had a hard time answering because the love I feel for Rachael, the love I now know is possible... is beyond what I knew before. I didn't really know how to describe it, and since it is so serious to me, I just didn't want to offer up an answer to it that was anything less than it should be. But as I thought all the more about what love is to me, and thought more about how I felt in my relationship, the meaning I was searching for became more clear. To me love is willing. That would be my answer. Love... true love... love as God intended it... is willing. If you look at the scriptures you see that this is how God enacts His love towards us. He is willing to love even when we are unlovable. He is willing to shower us with His love even though we don't deserve it.
Romans 5 (NIV)
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This is love in action... love that is willing... it should be our example. So this is what has been on my mind ever since that day in the Pastor's office and I hope to explain further just what I mean be a "willing" love.
The way I see it is that we have had love modeled for us... a perfect love... true love... and yet we struggle immeasurably to follow the model. In our nature the love we have to give others is but just a small piece of what it should be as our desire to please self interrupts the flow of love to another. That is why when things in a relationship begin to get hard so many people look for the exit instead of deciding to stick it out... to make it work. And this kind of love isn't really love at all. In order for us to know how to really love someone you need to be loved. And if you are going to truly love somebody you will need to be truly loved by somebody. But the only one who knows how to truly love is God, and until we go to Him to be loved... and to be taught how to love... how we love will always be but a small portion of what it could be.
In my life, I have experienced the love of God... and it is through this love that I am free and able to love. I have received love... true love... and now I can give love... true love. Thanks be to God. This is the love I will now look to give back to God, and then extend to my wife Rachael. This is how God intended it to be, and this is how I want to live my life... loving God first, and my wife above all others. I am willing, and I am able, but not because/or in and of myself, but because of God. I can love Him because He first loved me. I can then extend that love because He shows me how to love.
1 John 4 (NIV)
Notice how this verse says to give freely what we have received... so in other words... if you haven't received it you cannot give it. That is how God designed it... and it is just one of so many reasons of why we need Him. For me, my desire is to love my wife with all that I have to give, so the more I know of God the more I will know of love, and I can then love her as she deserves to be loved. I am willing.
Our example to love has been given to us... and it is an example I hope to learn to live by. When talking to His disciples Jesus once said that...
John 13:35 (NKJV)
Rachael my love I am willing.
I am willing to learn more of God so I can learn more of love. In this I hope to be able to learn how to love you... truly love you... beyond how I love you now. You deserve to be loved in this way, and that is my hearts desire.
I am willing to be changed... changed and molded by God... molded and shaped into the man He has made me to be. In this I know that He will make me into the man who will love you as you ought to be loved, a princess\... a daughter of the Almighty.
I am willing to be corrected... as I know that many of my "ways" are not the ways of the Lord. I pray that He helps me correct the error of my ways so that I can be the type of man who doesn't need to be right... who doesn't seek his own way, but who seeks His way. In this I hope to become the type of leader that you will need me to be/want me to be.
I am willing to learn more of you... as I know that all that I do know is just the beginning. I want to know everything there is to know about you... whether "quirks" in your personality, or things you may see as "shortcomings"... to know every way I can make you smile, laugh, or blush... to know the things that make you tick whether good or bad... to know the desires and dreams of your heart and how they may change over the years... because in all of this I will know you better, for all of these things are a part of you. I want to know all of you. I am willing to go further and deeper into who you are, to know you in the most intimate and personal ways... to spend my life gathering information on who you are because you are that special to me.
I am willing to be humbled... as I know I am not perfect even though I try so hard to be. To be humbled by God as He teaches me my place, my role, and shows me the plan for my life... and to be humbled by you, my partner, my friend, my wife. You amaze me, and I have already learned so much from you... and I look forward to seeing how God is going to use you to teach me. The way you look at things, your insights, your wisdom, all of this will help make me a better man. To serve God and to love you I am willing to be humbled.
I am willing to admit when I am wrong.
I am willing to seek you first before I make any decisions.
I am willing to seek advice on anything and all things to make sure I am doing the right thing by you.
I am willing to learn what it means to love as God loves.
I am willing to learn how to live in that love and extend it first to you, and then to others.
I am willing to love you when the going gets hard, when I don't feel like it, and when you don't deserve it.
I am willing to make the choice to love no matter what.
I am willing... because God is willing... it is His desire for me to be the kind of man who treats you as you should be treated, so I will trust Him to teach me and make me that man.
In all of this I am willing... love is willing... and I love you with all I have to love you with... more than yesterday, but not as much as I will tomorrow.
This is my goal... the goal I will live my life by so I can love you as God intended...
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself,..."
I love you SWEET!!!
"When God Made You" by Newsong and Natalie Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIdnp0z0OCA
"If You Could See What I See" by Geoff Moore and The Distance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_InoBdOVGWM
"How to Fall" by Josh Wilson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvRlvpcKDVk
"God Gave Me You" by Dave Barnes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7PvQCwhgHo
"You Belong To Me" by Michael W Smith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H4ubwENeeo
This is love in action... love that is willing... it should be our example. So this is what has been on my mind ever since that day in the Pastor's office and I hope to explain further just what I mean be a "willing" love.
The way I see it is that we have had love modeled for us... a perfect love... true love... and yet we struggle immeasurably to follow the model. In our nature the love we have to give others is but just a small piece of what it should be as our desire to please self interrupts the flow of love to another. That is why when things in a relationship begin to get hard so many people look for the exit instead of deciding to stick it out... to make it work. And this kind of love isn't really love at all. In order for us to know how to really love someone you need to be loved. And if you are going to truly love somebody you will need to be truly loved by somebody. But the only one who knows how to truly love is God, and until we go to Him to be loved... and to be taught how to love... how we love will always be but a small portion of what it could be.
In my life, I have experienced the love of God... and it is through this love that I am free and able to love. I have received love... true love... and now I can give love... true love. Thanks be to God. This is the love I will now look to give back to God, and then extend to my wife Rachael. This is how God intended it to be, and this is how I want to live my life... loving God first, and my wife above all others. I am willing, and I am able, but not because/or in and of myself, but because of God. I can love Him because He first loved me. I can then extend that love because He shows me how to love.
1 John 4 (NIV)
19 We love because he first loved us.
or in the NKJV
1 John 4 (NKJV)
or in the NKJV
1 John 4 (NKJV)
19 We love Him because He first loved us.
And since He loves us we can love... what He has freely given us we are free to give away.
Matthew 10 (NLT)
And since He loves us we can love... what He has freely given us we are free to give away.
Matthew 10 (NLT)
8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!
Notice how this verse says to give freely what we have received... so in other words... if you haven't received it you cannot give it. That is how God designed it... and it is just one of so many reasons of why we need Him. For me, my desire is to love my wife with all that I have to give, so the more I know of God the more I will know of love, and I can then love her as she deserves to be loved. I am willing.
Our example to love has been given to us... and it is an example I hope to learn to live by. When talking to His disciples Jesus once said that...
John 13:35 (NKJV)
35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In writing to the Thessalonian church the Apostle Paul said...
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.
How is it that we purify ourselves... by going to God to be purified, by obeying the truth... His truth... and loving one another. we must be willing to seek Him first, to receive His love, and allow Him to teach us how to love.
In writing to the Thessalonian church the Apostle Paul said...
1 Thessalonians 4:9 (NKJV)
9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
The Apostle Peter says that...
1 Peter 1 (NIV)
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.
How is it that we purify ourselves... by going to God to be purified, by obeying the truth... His truth... and loving one another. we must be willing to seek Him first, to receive His love, and allow Him to teach us how to love.
Rachael my love I am willing.
I am willing to learn more of God so I can learn more of love. In this I hope to be able to learn how to love you... truly love you... beyond how I love you now. You deserve to be loved in this way, and that is my hearts desire.
I am willing to be changed... changed and molded by God... molded and shaped into the man He has made me to be. In this I know that He will make me into the man who will love you as you ought to be loved, a princess\... a daughter of the Almighty.
I am willing to be corrected... as I know that many of my "ways" are not the ways of the Lord. I pray that He helps me correct the error of my ways so that I can be the type of man who doesn't need to be right... who doesn't seek his own way, but who seeks His way. In this I hope to become the type of leader that you will need me to be/want me to be.
I am willing to learn more of you... as I know that all that I do know is just the beginning. I want to know everything there is to know about you... whether "quirks" in your personality, or things you may see as "shortcomings"... to know every way I can make you smile, laugh, or blush... to know the things that make you tick whether good or bad... to know the desires and dreams of your heart and how they may change over the years... because in all of this I will know you better, for all of these things are a part of you. I want to know all of you. I am willing to go further and deeper into who you are, to know you in the most intimate and personal ways... to spend my life gathering information on who you are because you are that special to me.
I am willing to be humbled... as I know I am not perfect even though I try so hard to be. To be humbled by God as He teaches me my place, my role, and shows me the plan for my life... and to be humbled by you, my partner, my friend, my wife. You amaze me, and I have already learned so much from you... and I look forward to seeing how God is going to use you to teach me. The way you look at things, your insights, your wisdom, all of this will help make me a better man. To serve God and to love you I am willing to be humbled.
I am willing to admit when I am wrong.
I am willing to seek you first before I make any decisions.
I am willing to seek advice on anything and all things to make sure I am doing the right thing by you.
I am willing to learn what it means to love as God loves.
I am willing to learn how to live in that love and extend it first to you, and then to others.
I am willing to love you when the going gets hard, when I don't feel like it, and when you don't deserve it.
I am willing to make the choice to love no matter what.
I am willing... because God is willing... it is His desire for me to be the kind of man who treats you as you should be treated, so I will trust Him to teach me and make me that man.
In all of this I am willing... love is willing... and I love you with all I have to love you with... more than yesterday, but not as much as I will tomorrow.
This is my goal... the goal I will live my life by so I can love you as God intended...
Ephesians 5:25-33a (NIV)
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself,..."
I love you SWEET!!!
"When God Made You" by Newsong and Natalie Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIdnp0z0OCA
"If You Could See What I See" by Geoff Moore and The Distance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_InoBdOVGWM
"How to Fall" by Josh Wilson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvRlvpcKDVk
"God Gave Me You" by Dave Barnes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7PvQCwhgHo
"You Belong To Me" by Michael W Smith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H4ubwENeeo
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