(Love, love, love,)
(love, love, love,)
(love, love, love.)
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time -
It's easy.
All you need is love,
All you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
(Love, love, love,)
(love, love, love,)
(love, love, love.)
All you need is love,
All you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
All you need is love,
All you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
(Beatles by Lennon & McCartney
Is this true? Is this what LIFE is all about? All we need is love?
These have been the questions of my heart the past 6 weeks.....really for years and years....but a desperate deep longing for answers... ... ...
... ... ...since my life changed forever on June 5, 2010 6:23pm.
Is all we need is LOVE?
What does that mean?
Is that the love of another person?
The love of a man/woman/friend?
Is that the love of God?
Or is this something deeper, a love of ourselves....deep within ourselves.
A love....or an acceptance OF love. Love is all around us but do we feel it.
First, God loves us... HE loves all of us every minute, every hour of everyday of our lives.
How do I know this.....because Holy Scripture says so.....1 John 4:19, Eph 3:17-19, John 3:16, Eph 2:4, Psalm 136:26, too many more to list. That is the easy part. I am a child of God. My mom is a child of God. God is forever true, Forever good, Forever God.
Second, The people around us love us........family, friends, even strangers often show love. They love us. Maybe not unconditionally like Our God. But they love...they love as much as they can.
This morning I was praying through some of my favorite parts of the book "Praying God's Word" by Beth Moore. I hadn't read Chapter 5 in a long time...."Overcoming the insecurity of Feeling Unloved". I have always skipping, skimmed and overlooked this chapter. As I flipped past this morning, it tugged on my heart.
I know I am loved....but what about my mom. Right after she died, the Lord told me....she was loved but she never accepted it. She never loved herself so it didn't matter how much I loved her. It could not keep her alive forever. My love did for a time...but at some point she needed to accept LOVE and believe it for herself. Deep down in her soul and that never happened.
She never "GOT IT".
The Lord kept telling me this over and over the week after she died. Whenever satan tried to bring up feelings of guilt...He reminded me....I loved her. I truely loved her with all my heart. She knew this in her head but she never accepted it in her heart.
During the preparations for the memorial service we scanned hundred and hundred of pictures. Going through many boxes of pictures, memories, keepsakes, awards, cards and letters. Know...if you ever sent her a card, letter, thank you note...she kept it. She kept them all. Years worth of people loving on her. But what happened to all that love..............?
In one of the boxes I found a story that we as a family read at her 2nd wedding. It was an excerpt from one of her favorite books,
"The Velveteen Rabbit". I don't think she read it often because I believe it made her sad that she never had what it talked about.
My 2 favorite quotes from the book that I believe summed up what she never "got".
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."
In "Praying God's Word" Beth Moore points to Proverbs 19:22 "What a man desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar".
Huh....I am confused......this doesn't seem to go together. Beth points out that if we fail to admit that love is our deepest desire than we are lying. Lying to ourselves. This then becomes an outward lie. WOW.....can I say revelation. My mom.....the life.....this history...the lies.
Beth Moore describes that these lies involved making an idol of something like material possessions or muting this desire with drugs and alcohol.
My mom "stockpiled" cards, letters, thanks you's....anything...anything that show her someone loved her. But even with all those binders full of thank you notes, boxes full of notes of praise and congratulations.....she never internalized what was in those boxes.
She was looking everywhere for love.....looking for it in friends, awards, husbands, children, careers, even the Lord......but that step....the step where you ACCEPT that love into your heart....was never reached. All of the above was never enough...she kept reaching and searching, begging for more. I felt this need daily in my life as she continued to beg me for more and more and more and more....nothing ever being "enough".
I have realized....my mom loved me, the best that she knew how. But I don't think she ever KNEW real love.
How well does one love when they have never really felt it in their own soul?
Because of her death.....her choice.....I have a hole. A hole where her life should be. A hole in my heart that used to be filled by the sound of her voice and the smell of her perfume.
It is not God's will for anyone to perish. He gave us this need for HIS love.
So this is my lesson to learn, my cycle to break, to take OFF her shoes and walk in my own.
"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul. Psalm 143:8 (NIV)"
One thing I have learned is what LOVE feels like and looks like. I found this is my husband. I have watched him love on his children in a way I have never known. I have watched him love on me unconditionally in a way I have never known. He is my rock. My teacher, My covering and My friend. He always reminds me to look up at the Lord for my strength. He continually prays over me......doesn't matter if the black cloud is near or the sun is shining bright. He holds me up and prays for me when I don't have any strength left to do it for myself. He may not always understand but he never sways, he never stops. He continues to be an earthly reflection of a what my Godly Father wants me to see, hear and feel. I love how the Lord gives us exactly what we need.
I will continue...continue on with my lists each day. Looking up, reaching out and changing my walk.
Daily I will fill my cup with the Lord Jesus. For He is the only way to fill my cup, to fill the hole in my heart.......
"You, eternal God, are my refuge, and underneath are Your everlasting arms. You will drive out my enemy before me, saying, "Destroy him!" (Deut. 33:27)"
Loving the Lord,
Loving Myself,
Loving my Family,
Loving my Friends.
"O God, please set my heart at rest in Your presence when my heart want to condemn me. For You, God, are greater than my heart, and You know everything. (1 John 3:19-20)"