Is it nice to be told  you are loved? Yes, but what is greater than that is to be showed love. Love is a verb.  Over the past 10 years together Curtis has showed me his love for me by his actions.   I truly hope that my actions have shown how much I love him, my family, and all my friends.  Don’t limit showing your love for others to this one day a year, share your love all 365 (366 during leap year). 

The only reason I can share my love with others is because God loved all of us first. He created us. He provided for us and not just for our physical needs but our spiritual ones as well. He loves us all so much that He sacrificed His only Son to ridicule, torture, and death so that our sins could be washed away by the blood, all so we could spend eternity with Him.  Through these plus many more actions God proves that love is a verb and that we should follow by His examples. 

Below are just a small handful of scriptures giving us directions of  love. 

“Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.” Proverbs 10:12 

“Love is patient & kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does no demand its own way. It is not irritable, & it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, & endures through every circumstance.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

“Three things will last forever-faith, hope, & love- and the greatest of these is love” 1 Corinthians 13:13

 “Always be humble & gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love” Ephesians 4:2

“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.” Colossians 3:14

“This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another” 1 John 3:11

“We know what real love is because of Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers & sisters.” 1 John 3:16

“Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.” 
1 John 3:18

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God & knows God. But anyone who dos not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8

“We love because He loved us first.” 1 John 4:19

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 

As I sit here not feeling good it made me think about how most people praise God when everything is going great but when it's not they are all "This sucks why is this happening?".   God puts ups and downs in your life for a reason. It's how we deal during each of the ups and downs that matter. I may have a sore throat and feel like crap right now but I still praise God with all my heart because I am alive, I have a roof over my head, I have food on my table, I have family & friends, I will live eternally with God because He sent His Son to die so I can, and so many other things. 

People need to start being grateful for all the positive things in their lives instead of dwelling on the negative things.  Sure some will say easier said than done. Let me tell you something most of my life I spent focusing  on the negative and guess what because of that life always sucked for me. I suffered from extreme depression to the point that I even tried to kill myself a few times. One day I heard a message on the radio that said if you focus on everything that is negative guess what that's all you see and actually help make more negative happen. However if you focus on keeping a positive attitude about what you are doing, now all of a sudden things you thought would never happen do.  "Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible." Matthew 19:26 When I heard that it really hit home for me and from that moment on I decided to focus on the positive and guess what I feel so much better now. Sure there are times I start feeling blah but then I remember it could be worse and I have so many positive things I could focus on instead. 

I'm sure there are some of you that still think yea okay but when circumstances are really bad it's just to hard to praise God. For you of those that say that let me tell  you about part of Travis Buchanan's testimony I heard at my church and is available to listen to on the church website here.  This man in the middle of the worst event for a parent to have to deal with started praising God. His eighteen month old daughter was lying there lifeless being worked on by paramedics and he is praising God for every moment he got to have with her.  If this man can praise God in a circumstance like that. Why can't the rest of us praise God when things that can't even compare to that aren't going well?