To the Doing of Your Love

With Valentine's Day approaching I find myself thinking about what else ... love.

Who has taught you the most about love in your life? The ultimate example of love for me is Jesus. His death so that I could live forever with him in heaven is the definition of unconditional love. I can never do anything to deserve such love, and yet he gives it to me freely.

But besides my heavenly father's example of love - the next person who has taught me the most about love is my earthly father. He is the one who taught me that love had nothing to do with feelings. He made a fantastic toast at my wedding about love - and here is what he said:

I can remember when Pam was in jr. high and we were having family devotions at the dinner table one night. We were studying love and I remember the look on her face when I told her that love had nothing to do with feelings - that love was not a feeling at all. God gave us a whole chapter in the Bible on love - I Corinthians 13. It's kind of a list of do's and don't's for love - and there is not a feeling in there. God makes this terrific promise in I Corinthians 13. He says if you do these do's and don't these don't's - Love Never Fails. That's a pretty terrific promise. So I would like to review those do's and don't's for Pam and Daren.

Do

• Be Patient
• Be Kind
• Rejoice in the Truth
• Always Protect
• Always Trust
• Always Persevere

Don't

• Envy
• Boast
• Be Proud
• Be Self-Seeking
• Be Easily Angered
• Keep a Record of Wrongs
• Delight in Evil

And so I raise my glass and make this toast to Pam and Daren ... To the doing of your love - that it may never fail.

Thanks, Daddy - for one of the most important lessons in my life. The first - that I can do nothing to deserve the ultimate gift of life from Jesus - but that I am worth it. The second - that love has nothing to do with feelings. That I will not always feel love and that is OK as long as I choose to love in the way that Christ has exampled it for me.

Happy Valentine's Day y'all!