Love Is...

By Nick (My Experience As...)

Love is the Greatest

1 Corinthians 13

 ¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

 ⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 ⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

 ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

 ¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

If you have been a Christian for more than five seconds this is probably a familiar passage. My wife can quote it by heart, and often does.  Not in the “you need to learn what love is so you can treat me right” kind of way (I probably deserve it but she gets the passage and know that would be missing the point). No, she tends to remind me when I’m getting bent out of shape on something trivial with someone else. She’s pretty compassionate like that.

I think this is all a lesson we want our children to learn too. I pray for my kids to know what real love is, so when they start dating (around 30) they won’t be fooled by someone telling them how much they “love” them.

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Tasty Bites: Healthy Jalapeño Poppers

By Candy, RN (Steele the Day)

We’re back in the garden today and harvesting peppers. Way too many jalapeños there! I’ve chopped and frozen dozens of them because they are definitely one of my favorite food groups. They are perfect on salads, in soups, and in casseroles, as well as in my tasty Burrito in a Bowl. But this is one of my favorite ways to eat them – poppers!

I first had jalapeño poppers in a restaurant – jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese, breaded, and deep-fried. They were awesome. Now that I’ve reinvented the recipe, I really like these better because the flavor of the pepper isn’t all covered up with breading and grease.

No formal recipe here, just directions and three ingredients. Well, four if you count gloves.

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YOB: #3. Leave Random Gifts On Doorsteps (Part 2)

By Beth

This one is going back quite a bit in my memory. It was one of the first things we did in the Year of the Birthday and my memory is not as strong as Lara's. You'll have to bear with me, I may embellish a bit!  But, honestly, it's probably good that I waited so long to write about this event; gave me a chance to see how those who found the random gifts responded.

Who doesn't like getting presents? And who wouldn't find an anonymous, though tasteful, gift intriguing? Who left it? Do I have a secret admirer? Are they watching me right now? How do I look? Do they see the lettuce in my teeth? Or is it a secret message from the CIA or Her Majesty's Secret Service, requesting immediate dangerous action on our part? You know if either Lara or I were to receive such a gift we would create an elaborate story involving monkeys, glitter, secret weapons made from lipstick tubes and dashing, British spies. The thinking behind leaving random gifts on doorsteps was just that: people would wonder and imagine similar storylines. We're all about using our imagination, Lara and I. We were also hoping to hear about the reactions of the recipients, so we chose people we (mainly I) would have some interaction with after the fact.

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When Did Everything Change?

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

Allow me an off week here. I love the fall season, it is my favorite. It is a time of change. For a long time it represented a new beginning for me. Growing up there was always a new school year to look forward to. After I had a daughter it was her new school year each fall. School Orientations, PTA meetings....always something new. There was something about the leaves changing, the crisp cool weather, the smell of wood burning. All of these things reminded me of new beginnings. A little backward I guess...most people look at Spring as a time of renewal. This year is the biggest change of all. My daughter has left for college and is now living away from home.

For the past eighteen years we shared every weekend together. I mean we did all kinds of stuff. Weekends were our special time. Her mom and I separated in 1998 and I had custody for the weekends. That time was special. Even in high school when we adjusted the schedule so she could have social activities we still had great weekends. Even after I remarried and got a wonderful step-daughter we still had those special weekends. There were many times that we were doing our own separate things but it was still special just being together. Now all of a sudden she is gone.

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Rebuilding

By Pat

In the neighborhood where I live, an abandoned house had fallen into great disrepair. It sat vacant for several years until finally, it was purchased by a contractor who began the extensive renovation. By the time be bought it, the house was in such bad condition that nothing could be salvaged except for the foundation. The house was bulldozed and the work began.

Day after day, the builder and his crew worked rebuilding on the existing foundation, and slowly but surely we began to see a new and beautiful home emerging. Frame, walls, roof, windows...little by little, it all began to come together. In time, the plumbers and electricians arrived, and before too long it was finished. Where a dilapidated, crumbling house once stood was a lovely, strong home, gleaming from top to bottom. It was just beautiful! In fact, the contractor who rebuilt it ended up keeping the house for himself, and now lives in it.

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