Love.

So today was Diá de San Valentín.

As the Día de Amor y Amistad comes to a close for this year I challenge you one thing:

1 John 4:18-20 (New International Version)

¹⁸There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

LOVE. Sometimes this is one of the hardest things that we are called to do as Followers of Jesus Christ. But we all know who is the perfect example of love: The One suffered on the Cross so that one day we might fellowship with HIM for eternity. This is the One called Jesus Christ, born of the Virgen Mary, of the Line of David. The One who walked on this earth for 33 years before being tortured for us. I think that the least that we can do this year is focusing on loving others. It doesn't always mean that we have to condone actions or even LIKE the person. We are called to love. For you know Who is Love? God. 1st John 4:16 says just this. So I challenge you love. At times I find it hard to love when I don't feel like I am loved in return. Does this make it right? But of course not! God doesn't say "Yeah, Rebs. Love only those who love you or who show you that they love you." Noooooo. He says to love my enemies and to pray for those who persecute me. Woah. But I know that I must. I cannot do it on my own. I constantly need to ask my Heavenly Father to help me do this! I really do. Because without Christ, I am jist a weak little Italian (and Swedish, Norwegian, & English) girl. Also, I challenge you to memorize the Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians. Good book with some great content and chapter 13 is one of the best. I challenge you to love, really love, somebody that you find difficult to love through, not only words but through actions as well. Remember the old saying: Actions speak louder than words. This is true. And did you know that love is not only a noun but also a verb? Well it is and a verb signifies action. You can tell someone that you love them, but they probably will not believe you until "they see it." Its the truth. So I challenge you love like our Lord loves. Obviously we are human and we can never be perfect but we are called to walk in HIS footsteps and with every footstep of HIS HE loves. He loves us.

Loved by HIM and working on loving through HIM,

the little rcp