True Love.

Oh, you think you know about love. When you're in 3rd grade and some little boy brings you a pink teddy bear for Valentine's. And then you realize later on in Jr. High that you were mislead, because that wasn't love, but "going steady" with a guy is totally it. And then, before you know it, you're a senior, and those little jr. high kids are so cute with their crazy ideas of love, because you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the football player who shares your locker and gave you his letterman jacket to wear is REAL love. Any of this ring a bell? Anyone? Anyone?


Although I won't name names, I remember exactly who gave me my first Valentine that "meant" something in the 3rd grade, and I remember who gave me my first Valentine love gram with carnations at school in Jr. High, and the first locker I shared and lettermen I wore, and Prom date, and college gameday weekends with those whom I thought were REAL love. Girls, we can be so naive.

I love my husband, we shared some of those later years of collegiate time together. And I knew he was the one. They say you'll know when you know, and they are right. I knew. And I'm just happy that he "knew" it was me for him too. There's the rub, when only one of the partners in a relationship, "know" it's the one. The real one. But anyway, he felt about me as I did about him....so we made it official and became husband and wife. And then you live in marital bliss ever after, right? Yea, something like that. But deep down you realize that you finally know LOVE, real LOVE.

And then, lo and behold, you have a child. And your world stops in that instance you hold them in your hands for the first time and you realize...this is it. This is LOVE. Genuine, unabashed, unconditional, lay down my life for you, L.O.V.E. It is by far the hardest emotion of love to describe, as the words of this world cannot hold the vastness of the love you have for your child, those you give birth to, those you adopt, those that just filter in and out through the years. It's the most solid love I have ever known. And believe me, let me say again, I love my husband, with the depths of my heart, but a mother's love is something else.

And so, you think you have finally figured it out. Love. It's just a 4 letter word, but in the hands of God it can be empowering beyond belief. Knowing Jesus, having a relationship with him, that is Love. That is the true love we all seek to have. People search all kinds of ways to fill that spot in your heart, never being satisfied with the worldly offers, because it cannot be filled except with Jesus, and his unconditional love.

It's hard for me to imagine anyone loving someone else more than I love Elder Son, Middle Child and Baby Girl, but God loves us even more.

H3 for February is only a part of a verse from the old testament, but it speaks all you need to know for this month of LOVE:

"He delights in unchanging love"

~Micah 7:18

He, our Lord, is faithful in His love for you.  He is loyal in His love for you.  He is merciful in His love for you. And his love, his faithfulness, his loyalty, his grace is UNCHANGING.  He doesn't pull your pigtails on the playground, or share your locker one week and break up with you the next.  If you have a relationship with Him, you are His and can rest secure in HIS UNCHANGING LOVE.