To Live Well and to Love Well
As I’m finishing up readings from my favorite books this morning, I am brought back to center. I am brought back to the adage that best describes what it is that I am striving to do - my deepest, strongest desire is to LOVE WELL AND LIVE WELL. Maybe it’s not a good thing always to have a brief slogan - maybe it makes it too easy to become complacent in my efforts to do what it says.
Trying to figure out this writing thing... so many challenges get ahead of me. Almost giving up daily, but something this time keep telling me to push through. I had this discussion with Robin, and she shared she had also experienced this thought. I have cheerleaders in my corner, and that encourages me. Just trying to get the shoe to fit, right?
The whole of the things I want to write are directly related to the above “slogan” - love well, live well. It all boils down to that. It’s biblical in origin. I’ve written about it before somewhere, but I’m sure I didn’t do it justice, because I am struggling in this area. When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus responded by saying,
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40
{Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: Love others as well as you love yourself. These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”} Matthew 22:37-40 The Message
At some point the last few years, I realized that in my prayers for people, the very best thing I could pray for was for God to be at the center of their life, and if the person I was praying for could do that - could put God at the center of their life, I didn’t need to pray for anything more specific, because I knew that everything else would fall into line. Somehow that feels related to the above scripture. If in our lives, we can stay focused - like laser beam focused - on loving God the way this tells us to, we will be on the right track. Certainly we will not get it perfect, but if we discipline ourselves to get back up when we’ve fallen and shake off the dust of our mistakes, we will be doing our best to fulfill that commandment. We will keep coming back to our Father and learning what it means to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind. That equally important commandment? I think the often overlooked part of it is that we must love ourselves first and well to be able to love others that way. That does not come naturally to most of us. We are usually out of balance in our self love in one way or another. We either love ourselves too much and forget that we are not God; or we have no love for ourselves and therefore have nothing to give to others, nothing genuine or healthy anyway.
UIKeyInputUpArrowSo, I try to keep my focus on these two things; am I loving God first and most? Am I loving myself well - taking care of my mind, body and soul? Am I loving others as well? Am I caring for their mind, body and soul? By extension, this question leads to the many things I love about life, all the practical and spiritual ways of growing and caring for what God has given me? And there are so many good gifts and so many ways to care for them. That’s the many varied topics that I want to visit in my writing. Helping other people find their way to the life God is calling them to is so much a part of that desire.
So there, the what and the why of my writing goals.
Peace
Trying to figure out this writing thing... so many challenges get ahead of me. Almost giving up daily, but something this time keep telling me to push through. I had this discussion with Robin, and she shared she had also experienced this thought. I have cheerleaders in my corner, and that encourages me. Just trying to get the shoe to fit, right?
The whole of the things I want to write are directly related to the above “slogan” - love well, live well. It all boils down to that. It’s biblical in origin. I’ve written about it before somewhere, but I’m sure I didn’t do it justice, because I am struggling in this area. When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus responded by saying,
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40
{Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: Love others as well as you love yourself. These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”} Matthew 22:37-40 The Message
At some point the last few years, I realized that in my prayers for people, the very best thing I could pray for was for God to be at the center of their life, and if the person I was praying for could do that - could put God at the center of their life, I didn’t need to pray for anything more specific, because I knew that everything else would fall into line. Somehow that feels related to the above scripture. If in our lives, we can stay focused - like laser beam focused - on loving God the way this tells us to, we will be on the right track. Certainly we will not get it perfect, but if we discipline ourselves to get back up when we’ve fallen and shake off the dust of our mistakes, we will be doing our best to fulfill that commandment. We will keep coming back to our Father and learning what it means to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind. That equally important commandment? I think the often overlooked part of it is that we must love ourselves first and well to be able to love others that way. That does not come naturally to most of us. We are usually out of balance in our self love in one way or another. We either love ourselves too much and forget that we are not God; or we have no love for ourselves and therefore have nothing to give to others, nothing genuine or healthy anyway.
UIKeyInputUpArrowSo, I try to keep my focus on these two things; am I loving God first and most? Am I loving myself well - taking care of my mind, body and soul? Am I loving others as well? Am I caring for their mind, body and soul? By extension, this question leads to the many things I love about life, all the practical and spiritual ways of growing and caring for what God has given me? And there are so many good gifts and so many ways to care for them. That’s the many varied topics that I want to visit in my writing. Helping other people find their way to the life God is calling them to is so much a part of that desire.
So there, the what and the why of my writing goals.
Peace
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