A Savior Is Born!

By Ginny (MAD21)

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. I pray that each of you feels the amazing love and peace Christ gives, no matter what life has handed you this year.

"Cherish Every Moment-The Dax Locke Foundation"

By Ginny (MAD21)

I really enjoy Matthew West's music. This month he has been honoring the family of Dax Locke, a little two-year-old boy who lost his battle with Leukemia almost a year ago. He was being lovingly treated at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In honor of their son, Austin and Julie Locke have decided that they want to raise enough money to run the entire hospital for one day, $1.6 million dollars.

I want to encourage you to listen to this video, and then go to either Matthew West's website, or to Dax Locke's website and make a donation. I really admire them for this ambitious project, and love St. Jude's for their dedication to sick children and their families.

Being "Mr. Lovewell"

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

We have been speaking about love over the past few posts. The study at my church has concluded and one thing I wish to leave you all with is that love is a verb. Love requires action. Love is never stagnant. If we say we love but our actions do not support it then we cannot truly be loving. God so loved us that he gave his son for us. Jesus so loved us that his entire ministry was an example of love in action. From birth to the cross everything he did was out of love. Often we say we love but do our actions support that?

Mercy Me, one of my favorite Christian artists, has a new album out. It is simply entitled "The Generous Mr. Lovewell." Many of the songs deal with love in one form or another. The title song is about a man named Mr. Lovewell. I would like to take a look at some of the lyrics with you and show you how they apply to what we have been talking about.

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Every Day Life: How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count The Ways...

By Beth M

As Lara has mentioned in her most recent article, we don't get to see each other a lot. We live 101 miles apart and both have jobs and families and lives away from each other. This is why we like to make the most of the time we can spend together, from scheming how to best take over the world to vegging out watching Lord of the Rings commentaries. Lara probably knows me better than anyone, save my mother, and even then it's pretty close. We've been friends since the 6th grade, which was 20 years ago now. WOW! That makes us sound so old! But, if recent history is anything to go on, Lara and I will never "be old" in the traditional sense of the word. We will continue to have as much fun as humanly possible as the years go by. We will continue to, in the words of my 14 year old daughter, "have too much fun."

For my next article, I've decided to take a more serious note and tell you all some of the things I love best about Lara. Now, some of them might be funny, or confusing to you, but they mean something to us. And this is in no way a comprehensive list. That would take too many pages and I'm pretty sure my fingers would fall off from typing long before I ever got to the end. Also, Ginny probably wouldn't want an article THAT long on the blog! We all need a friend like Lara in our lives, so here we are, 25 things I love about Lara:

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Love Is A Verb

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

Recently at my home church we started a six week study called "40 Days of Love" which was written by Rick Warren (Sr Pastor of Saddleback Church). This is the same type of study that some of you may have done like 40 Days of Purpose or 40 Days of Community. All of these are great six week studies designed to grow, stretch and strengthen your faith. It is said that it takes six weeks to develop or break a habit so these fit right in there in creating a new way of thinking. Over the next few posts I want to take some of what I have gleaned from this study and share my perspective.

Though not from the study, but rather from my heart, today's post is entitled Love is a Verb. This is something that I have discussed many times with sponsors and others when presenting Compassion's programs. You see we can say we love someone or something but that is really just words. Love requires action, love requires doing. I can tell my wife over and over that I love her but unless I back those words with actions then it just means nothing to her. Those actions too must reflect my words. They are tied together. I cannot say I love her and then treat her harshly for that negates the statement.

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