love

The following is a response to the Florescents blog. A friend of mine, Carol, posted this on her blog today. You can check out her wonderful musings at http://carol-fromheretothere.blogspot.com

Wholly crap! God is Love!

(Warning! This is a long one!)
Okay, so huge light bulb moment these past several days!
I was reading a friend's blog(sacred encounters -the link is listed on my page)last Friday and it was about flourescent lighting and how it very harshly shows us each and every flaw and how when we try to repair these flaws in this lighting and we go out into the normal more gentle natural lighting, we could end up with a close resemblance to the infamous Bozo the Clown! And anyway, how we listen to those flourescent lighting voices in our head instead of the more gentle natural God voice and we(okay definitely me!) end up looking like Bozo. She goes on to say that God is gentle and kind.
TA-DA! Here is my light bulb moment! It says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails..."
And then guess what I realized?!!! GOD IS LOVE! It says so in 1John 4:8 "But anyone who does not love, does not know God-for God is love." (Okay a little side note here for those of you that know me---no, I have not suddenly and miraculously gained the ability to quote and spout scripture word for word---I had to do a search and find the exact words---I knew the love is patient stuff was in Corinthinians somewhere and I knew I heard that "God is love" at some point but I wasn't sure where, to be completely honest---I think I sang it in a worship song---I've been wondering why that key phrase has been repeating endlessly in my head and now I finally know why-duh! sometimes I can be a bit thick headed...)
So, on to my point! GOD IS LOVE! These words can be interchangable! Hello! How freakin'awesome is that! Do you know what that means? Well, let me tell you!
It means the following:


God is patient with me
God is kind to me
God will not dishonor me
God does not get easily angered by me
God does not keep a score card of all of my screw ups
God is not delighted when I am miserable
God loves it when I get the truth
God protects me
God trusts me (probably a whole lot more than I trust Him sometimes)
God does not give up hope on me, because...
God perseveres
God never fails
So, now when I hear the harsh unkind flourescent lighting voices in my head telling me things like "you can't write, whatever gave you that idea? you're so stupid... you're an idiot, you are nothing and always will be nothing... you're an awful wife...you're an awful mom...you can't be an artist, you can't be anything or anyone." I can tell them to shut up! That is not God speaking to me. He would never say those things to me.

He loves me. When I am in need of repair, He lets me know and does so in a kind patient gentle loving way. My God would instead things like:

"You are a writer and an artist, because that is how I created you, sit with Me, let's write together, let's sketch and paint together. You are a wife and mother, stop trying to be the perfect wife and mother---love your family like I love you, patiently, kindly, lift them up. Stop trying to love them by doing, love them by being your true self. You are already more than nothing because I have created you. Just stop trying to be something and just be you. That is my heart's desire for you, Carol, just be you, creative, artistic, loving, fun, funny, and content in your love for Me. "

Wow, I didn't mean for this last part to come out, but I believe that it was meant to, so I'll leave it on here, unedited...

Bottom line here is, I get it. I finally get, God is love and God loves me...

Thanks for being faithful with your daily blogs, Deb! Love you!