Influence

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It has been a long while since I have posted anything here. I have been busy completing three years toward my B.A. in English and my senior year is underway. My current class (Creative Writing) has finally given me the space to take off the tight harness of academic writing rules, and it feels SO GOOD!! After reading my first assignment, Mom and Daddy gave it their thumbs up and suggested I make it a blog post, so here it is. It is my story and their story. It's a little longer than my usual posts, but as with everything I have ever posted here, I pray it encourages you to run "up the sunbeam to the sun" (C. S. Lewis). "Follow my example,  as I follow the example of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV I sat above them on the stairs. Looking down through the window-like openings in the partition between the living room and the stairway, I listened to the basketball players, football players, baseball players, wrestlers, track athletes, both the lettermen

Love Letters

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-- Love letters are the stuff of story books, fairy tales, movies and songs. Kept and treasured for years, worn with frequent handling, love letters are more precious to the loved one than gold or jewels or riches. Read and reread, pored over and memorized, love letters pour love from one heart to another. I find love letters from God all the time! He has this endearing habit of designing hearts into His creation, and then He waits and watches to see if I'll find them . . . and notice. Here are a couple of the recent love letters I've found: There is another love letter that is my favorite one of all. This one is filled with so much love it is sixty-six books long, detailing a love like no other, and written just for me . . . and you . . . and anyone willing to be loved. This love letter is the passionate expression of a completely sacrificial, nothing-held-back, all or nothing, utterly incomprehensible love to outshine all loves! This letter lays bare the heart of the greatest of all Kings, who loves His beloved to the point of His own death. So who is the King who sent this amazing love letter? Who is capable of a love this powerful? There is only ONE! He is the King of kings, the Hero of heroes, Jesus Christ Himself. His letter tells of His unfailing love, of His Father who sent Him on this rescue mission, and of the Holy Spirit who, while our Beloved Hero King is away, waits with us, eagerly watching for His return! Just like the romantic kind, this love letter is the inspiration for story books, fairy tales, movies and songs. Kept and treasured for years, worn with frequent handling, this love letter is more precious than gold or jewels or riches. Read and reread, pored over and memorized, this love letter pours love from His heart to mine. This love letter is my Bible, God's very own words written to me. It is my treasure, my heartbeat, my breath and my life. He wrote it to you too! You are loved beyond measure!!
"The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. '" Jeremiah 31:3 NIV

P.S. I am sitting in a quiet little hotel business center, reflecting on an amazing experience. I wrote my Love Letters post before I left on Friday to bring my daughter and a group of girls from our church to an event called The Revolve Tour. During this weekend conference, each speaker, every band, every drama presentation, told the Arena filled with thousands of teenage girls of the love of God in a powerful, passionate, dynamic way. Their theme was so simple, but so profoundly important:

"God Loves You. The Real You. 4Real."

I was struck by the thought that these people were walking, talking, singing, dancing Love Letters, sent to these girls (and grown up girls) to pour His love into their hearts. That is what happens when we truly receive His love, we get to become living love letters to the people God puts in our path. I was privileged to carry that mission out in a one on one time with a beautiful young girl last night and I am humbled to have been given the opportunity to be a very personal love letter sent to her.

I am so thankful that my precious daughter and I were able to share in this experience and that we will be able to remind one another of the mountain top experience we had. We will become His love letters to one another and to the people to whom God sends us. We are so blessed!

Tell me your favorite lines from God's love letter to you, His Word. Tell me about a time when you got to BE a love letter!

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