Snapshots of Love

                                                      

Giveaway is now closed...winners have been announced!

I am joining with Mattie and several other sweet bloggy-friends to share What Love Really Means during the month of February. I must say, this post has been tugging at my heart, hanging over my head, and nagging on my mind since I agreed to write it. Love is such a vast topic, and we, with our finite, human minds are so inadequate to describe such a glorious mystery. I know I cannot share the depths of all that love really is in this little post. So, I will share but a piece of what love has come to mean to me. Snapshots of love God has bestowed on our lives and a few of love's many languages spoken into our hearts.

The greatest love story ever told, is of course, the story of Jesus, coming to redeem and save His broken people. The greatest earthly love story I've ever known is my own, or rather, it is the story of the love He has woven between us.

Some snapshots of our love...

Laughter...

That's the first love language Tim spoke to me. He made me laugh like no one ever has, and he did it in the midst of such teenage angst and brokenness. That laughter was music to my soul and a healing balm to all my broken places. He stole my heart with his quick-witted humor and chocolate brown eyes. There was an honest purity in those eyes. I trusted him.

Steadfast...

I was a spitfire. My own storm. A huge pain in the neck. (Sometimes I still am.) And, he stood firm in the midst of my fury and passion. I close my eyes and remember a shouting match that was mostly me shouting and spewing forth too many words, and him standing steadfast. He knocked on the door I had just slammed in his face, and thrust a tiny diamond in front of me, asking me to marry him, with a sheepish grin, while I still seethed with ugliness. The beginning of a life filled with moments of imperfection covered by grace, I said "yes", and slipped the dainty ring on my finger.

Doing the Hard Things...

The Ashes...

Working, going to school, staying when others would have walked away...
Sitting by Timothy's hospital bed, laying down his own plans...choosing us...
Scraping by on minimum wage...
Hanging on by a thread, two clueless young hearts trying to be grown-ups before our time in a tiny one bedroom apartment with a baby bouncing in the crib....
Me on my knees, surrendering at the foot of the cross, and him breathing in the black air of the factory and studying government...
Stolen moments of laughter in a foreign place of sorrow through the fresh heaviness of grief, laughter that only he could deliver as my arms ached for the girls I held for moments in my arms, but forever in my heart...
Standing by the grave of our only daughters on a cold November day, coaxing me to leave with his words of reassurance...
Him, going to work still freshly broken and coming home to me, collapsing in his arms in a puddle of grief and emptiness...
Trying again...an attempt to fill the emptiness...
His face, drained of color and the agony gripping my heart when we heard the words "incompatible with life".
Driving home in the rain...
Another tiny coffin, this time lined in blue...
Weeping together...
Me, on my knees again at the feet of Jesus...
Abiding, remaining, loving through the hard. Letting God love through me, when I was too weak.

Redemption and Grace...

The Beauty...

A sweet miracle and the sound of our newborn baby's cry...the sweetest sound...
Coming home...
His hands, calloused from hard work, folded in prayer on Sunday morning.
Him, standing in the food line, dressed in his suit on the day we buried my mother, carrying our plates, thinking when my brain stopped...
The guitar music that fills our house...
The sound of my voice blending with his guitar, lifted in worship...becoming one.
The teasing from our boys as they learn the love language of their father...just make her laugh, and everything will be o.k.
Me...the sucker for a good laugh. The three of them, all wearing a satisfied grin.
Riding home from the golf course in the truck beside him with the windows down, inhaling the sweetness of summer, with my hair blowing free and Need to Breathe turned up on the radio...

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Love is in all of those things...in the good, the bad, and the ugly of life. It's in the laughter and the tears, the exciting and the mundane. It holds you beside the grave and laughs with you in the back yard. It stays when the world leaves....when all you want to do is run away...it stays to do hard. Determined, steadfast, true. Giving when you're empty. In the weeping, in the laughing, in the music of it all...love remains.

I am in awe of God's love. Continually in awe, as I watch Him weave this beautiful tapestry through our lives. His abiding love has carried us through laughter and tears, and continues to cover us with mercies...new every morning. I pray you know that kind of love. If you don't, start looking for it...in the everyday. In the hard things, in the little things, in the beauty of the world around you. Ask God to show Himself and His love to you. Ask Him to fill your heart with His love for those around you. That's a prayer He is just waiting to answer.

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ~ Ephesians 3:14-19

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A Little More on Love Languages...

When I was a young wife and mother, some wise women from the church began to mentor me shortly after I gave my life to Jesus. They taught me about honoring my husband and training my children, and keeping my home. But, one of the most valuable lessons was to learn to be a student of my husband. To learn how to speak his love language. While Tim, in his manly-manness, differs quite a bit in what makes his heart skip a beat from what makes my heart flutter in my girly-girlyness....we have found a common ground in laughing together. Laughter and teasing were love languages spoken in both our homes, growing up...and that is a heritage we have passed on to our children.

Sure, sometimes I wouldn't mind a little sappiness. And, Tim...being a student of his wife's love language has learned that, and occasionally obliges. (I must urgently interject here, though, that it is important to keep your focus OFF the idea that your husband should be a student of you, learning to speak your love language. Instead, keep your focus on learning his. Many times, he will follow suit, but that should never be your goal or focus. Love always yields. Don't worry about what you will get back. Love gives without expectations.) In general, my boys show love by teasing me or getting me to laugh. They probably would never say anything this sappy, but I imagine my laughter is music to them, like their guitar playing is to me. They don't say things like that with words, but with the satisfied grins on their faces once they hear the coveted laugh.

The other simple thing I've learned about loving my boys...and I believe this is almost universal for boys of all ages...is to listen and take interest in their stories. They love to tell their stories, and make us laugh. It is a great compliment to you, if they are willing to share. So, accept that as a gift of love...even if it's a story about how they beat the next level on the Star Wars game or the crazy thing Jimmy did in science class today.

For more about Loving Your Husband in His Language, click here.

Giveaway!

In honor of love and marriage and all the good stuff God gives us in both, I would like to give away two CDs...one to each winner. One is Beauty Will Rise by Stephen Curtis Chapman....because he and Mary Beth have shared a beautiful love story, with God's grace woven throughout. And JJ Heller's When I'm With You, because I love her...and I love that she and her husband make beautiful, God-honoring music together. Plus, there's a song on the CD called, What Love Really Means...which seems quite fitting! To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me which CD you would like. You can also share a snapshot of love in your own life...or share a bit of your own love language if you want. Or not. We like grace here! =)