Showing posts with label gift of Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gift of Love. Show all posts

Tuesday

The Gift of Love - A Dose of Encouragement


We do not really celebrate ST. Valentine's Day.


My husband and I never got into that as girlfriend and boyfriend except to exchange cards.


Perhaps it was because we were still at school and then at university for the 4 years before we got married, and school kids and students in the 70's did not have money!







Anyway we have never (that I can remember) gone out for a meal or special event for Valentine's Day.
Unless you count last year when we went to the local hotel for a meal with our son and his girlfriend and our daughter.  Seems strange, you may think, to go out with others on that night but we were not going out because of Valentine's Day but because our daughter was due to leave for South Korea a few days later and that was the night we were all free to have a farewell meal together.  I think it may have seemed a bit odd to the hotel as we were the only table not for a couple.

So this year I suggested to my husband that we have a date night on Friday Night, which he knew straight away was Valentine's Day - question still remains how did he know that without thinking?


I then assured him that I was not choosing

                                because it is Valentine's Day

but simply because on



evening we have a meeting at church,

evening we are going to dinner at our son and daughter-in-law's home (the same pair that were only girlfriend and boyfriend this time last year, got engaged at the end of April and married at the end of October & our daughter managed to come back from South Korea for a few days for the wedding),


evening we have a friend round with us for dinner,


evening we have a prayer meeting in church


                                and


we will need to do all the catch-up from the busy week & be tired in the evening and just want to lie in front of the TV and watch something we have taped during the week.


                                   So

 evening was really our only choice.



Next was the question I could have uttered for him myself but I am kind and I let him say it.

"Well what do you want to do?"


I of course should have been prepared seeing as I knew he would say what he always says but I'm silly and I wasn't.

However being determined not to get annoyed at this usual question I sort of looked around me as I tried to think of something quickly and because I was in the kitchen making the dinner at the time I came out with

"You have to cook me a meal all by yourself"


You would have thought I had told him to do something he knew nothing about and had never seen before.


"How am I going to do that?"


This is the guy who taught me to make an omelette when we were students before we got married but now claims he doesn't know how to make one.  This is also the guy who after we got married made the meals on the days that his lectures were over earlier than mine while we were still students and who made all the meals for the few weeks of my final university exams.


Well that really was not how the conversation should have gone!


But even though I was rather annoyed at the usual type of response, and told him so!


That kind of thing was not going to spoil our week or even our day.



We have to remember that when we got married we promised to

                                         
                                                               so something like this cannot get in the way.



A few months ago the ladies who lead our graphics course were developing a magazine for the iPad called  DIY Marketing Graphics and they asked each of the people on the course if they would like to contribute a graphic on the theme of Love for the February Issue.



This was my offering and I was very pleased that they did feature it in the magazine.


I was just playing around with a nice black background and some red hearts and then the wording came to me.


Basically this is what we are doing when we commit to each other in marriage, we are giving our love as a gift to our spouse and we are committed to this forever.  We do not take it back in the hard times or the times (repeatedly) when we annoy each other.  We have given them our love so that overrules all else in any situation.  


This is what God has done with His love.  
He has given the gift of Love which is Jesus, because He loved us and 
He will not take His love back from us either.


I am very thankful that God has shown us true love by His own example.






We all should know the true qualities of Love (if not, we need to read 1 Corinthians 13) and so we know what our actions should be like.  The thing is we are all human and it is hard to get over being hurt and it is hard to accept apologies and it is hard to be gracious and forgiving.  


I am also very thankful that even though Fred & I may take a bit of time to do the forgiving etc. we know we still love each other and such a trust is in our marriage because we know that.





Have you ever thought about your love being a gift that you can give?

Have you thought about God's Gift of Love to you?




Sunday

What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 2


This is the 2nd Sunday of Advent

The thing I have already thought about in the previous post is the Hope we have because of Jesus but today I want to consider the    





we have in Him.


So what could be more fitting than singing about Jesus as 
God's Love Gift to us because that is exactly what Jesus is.


The Saving Grace of Jesus.






Do you know this Saving Grace of Jesus?

Have you accepted this Gift of Love from God?


From the passages in my Advent reading plan 
I know that 
Jesus came to destroy the works of satan.
Jesus came to bear witness to the truth.
Jesus came so that we can believe in Him and have life in His name.
Jesus came to reconcile us to God.


Do you know why Jesus came to earth?

Are you glad that Jesus came?








Friday morning was  
"Shopping in our town with our grown up son" time.
Cold, windy & wet day but it's a small town so not that far to walk between car park and shops.
He kept comparing it to the large city he lives in, parking much cheaper here and streets less crowded.
We also got our turkey and ham for Christmas.




Friday afternoon was  
"Shopping in the Christian Bookshop with our grown up son" time.
One and a half hours can pass quickly when we are somewhere like this.
The ICM Bookshop outside Lurgan is enormous.
They also have a good website with great prices and lots of free shipping to anywhere in the UK, so have a look at their site  https://www.icmbooksdirect.co.uk/


Friday evening was  
"Shopping in the Sprucefield Shopping Centre with our grown up son" time.
A few last minute presents, and a nice wander around in the festive but not-too-busy shops.

These are some of the highlights of our Christmases now - having our family come from far as well as near.
The special times of love and togetherness that we miss.


Of course as usual I'm doing Christmas songs with the kids at church and we like to sing this simple one about God's Love



'Tis Christmas, 'Tis Christmas
The Christmas Bells ring
The Birthday of Jesus our Saviour and king
Tis Christmas, Tis Christmas
Our Bible recalls 
The Birthday of Jesus 
God's Love Gift to all. 


You can find the words & chords of this song 
also actions, sing-a-long video 
and free printables at









After a day like that we need to remember that shopping is not the main thing that's important at this time of the year






We need to make sure that Jesus Christ is still in our Christmas, just like the words of this song 



Unto you is born this day a Saviour
A baby boy was found there in a manger
The blessed truth of Christmas let us hear
Let's put Christ back into Christmas this year


Christmas is the birthday of our King
The greatest gift of all He came to bring
He's the Prince of Peace let's show Him that we care
Let's put Christ back into Christmas this year


On this day the wise men saw a star
They followed it with gifts and travelled far
And praised the baby Jesus lying there
Let's put Christ back into Christmas this year


Let within your heart His praises ring
And celebrate the day our Saviour came
May peace on earth at Christmas time appear
Let's put Christ back into Christmas this year
Let's put Christ back into Christmas this year



Are you making sure that Christ is still in your Christmas this year?


Walking along the promenade in Newcastle, Co. Down is not the thing I would normally plan to be doing just a few days before Christmas.


Two things happened within the last few days that meant us taking the half hour drive to Newcastle one day last week and I was looking forward to walking the promenade while there.  However it was just too cold and wet and blowy that we didn't have our walk.

Instead we just sat and admired the seaside view for a while and took a few pictures and short videos of the waves.




A great example of the nature that God has created.


One of the books I got in the ICM Bookshop yesterday was for the younger kids in our Sunday School.

It can be read to young children and then as they get a bit older they can read it for themselves.




This book has had great reviews by parents which is a very good recommendation for it and is unusually written by a Theologian, James Hamilton.  He wrote it primarily for his son but was then encouraged to get it published which he then did through Christian Focus.


On the journey back today we discussed the presents for Christmas.

It has been agreed that I have nearly everything sorted out fine now.
I just hope the recipients of these presents agree with us.


Were you able to take time today to appreciate God and His creation amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas presents?