The gift of love

Hi there again. I trust we all had happy holidays. I just wanted to leave you with a few thoughts on the upcoming year.

As I was busy, like most of us during Christmas, I couldn’t help notice all of the frantic people going from place to place. Whether they were going shopping to spend more money then they had or just traveling into or out of town, many of them seemed happy, but you could tell that many of the people were frustrated or just plain unhappy for one reason or another.

This brings me to my point: I was talking with a family member about the idea of gift giving and how it seems to have lost its original appeal. In the past we bought gifts for people because we cared for them or they were someone special or just because we wanted to (out of love).

Nowadays, it seems altogether different. We seem to buy gifts for a lot of different reasons, and go into debt doing so, only to spend the next year paying off our purchases.

I thought about the people who didn’t have the money to buy gifts. What could they give? Then it hit me: why not give someone you know the gift of love?

The bible tells us that love covers all sins, so what if we were to forget the things that have happened to us in the past and shower those who have hurt us with love?

Can you remember a time in your life when you needed a family member or a friend’s love, but because of an indiscretion on your part, they rejected you? What about Jesus? Look at how some of us treat Him, yet He still loves us in spite of ourselves.

I just ask you to think about it. What a great gift it would make. Something that, like Jesus, may cost us a lot, but to the persons we give it out to, it will encourage them, it will strengthen them, it will bless them, but most of all it will show others that they matter. Just like our Savior would want.

The bible says it best in 1 Corinthians 13. Now if we could just put it into practice.

So here’s my New Year’s resolution: teach me, Lord, to love the way that you do, so I can enjoy life more, worry less and be a better example of an over-comer to those around me.

The Lord bless you all in the upcoming year.