Love Each Other

We are just a few days away from Valentine's Day, so I thought it was a perfect time to talk about "LOVE". 

Love is defined in the Oxford dictionary as "1.  An intense feeling of deep affection. 2. A great interest and pleasure in something."  It is a word I use often.  I love my family and friends. I love chocolate, I love to have crafting time and I love the beach.  But what I want to look at, is the Biblical meaning of love. 

There are 4 types of love in the Bible:

Storge - Empathy Bond
Philios - Friend Bond
Eros - Romantic Love
Agape - Unconditional "God" love

My challenge to you and myself this Valentine's Day is to love everyone with Agape love, as God loves us.

The Bible actually calls for us to love others, like God loves us. Mmm...that can be more than a little difficult, am I right? Am I supposed to love a co-worker who tried to sabotage my career, or a rude cashier, or a driver that made a not-so-nice hand gesture to me because I was turning in the parking lot too slowly for their liking?  YES!!!  Because that's how God loves us.

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Romans 5:8 NIV

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

 1 John 4:7-11 NIV

 1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

 1 John 3:1 NIV

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

1 John 4:16 NIV 

10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 54:10 NIV

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV 

 26 Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

Psalm 136:26 NIV 

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 NIV 

The love we have been shown through the sacrifice of Jesus is a love like no other!  So this Valentine's Day and everyday, let us not only love those we find easy to love....let us love EVERYONE, so that we can glorify God!

Page Details:
I created this page by stamping out several people, with the Brotherly Love & Girl Power stamp sets.  I had fun making each one unique, just as God made us.  I colored them in with watercolors and cut them out with my Brother Scan & Cut (my Christmas present from my hubby).  I used the people to create at tip-in at the bottom of the page, so I could still read the scripture underneath.  I traced and colored a large heart in the center, to represent God's love for us.  I used the hearts from the Women of Praise set to create a background. My title is a combination of the new Loop da Loop Alpha and Bitty Mini Alpha. 

Here's a short video clip, showing how the tip-in works:

These are the sets I used to create my page:

Until next time, catch up with me on Instagram @simplyjillsjourney.  I hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Jill Norris

Forgive

Forgive. 

Merriam Webster’s dictionary has this to say about “forgive”:

"Transitive verb. To cease to feel resentment against an offender. To give up resentment of or claim to requital."

Because it’s a verb, it is an action, or a choice. In this case, it is a transition from unforgiven to forgiven. It’s going from holding on to that resentment to giving it up. It’s choosing to say, “I no longer will hold this against you.” It is not saying I agree with what you did, or said, or caused. It’s just an heart attitude shift towards healing.

Many years ago, I was in a very painful situation. One where I wasn’t sure even how to forgive the other person. A very wise person shared with me that the same blood that covered all of my offenses covered the other person’s as well. We both were on equal ground...at the foot of the cross.

Wow! What an eye opener for me. There was no offense worse than any other. Christ’s blood covered them all...equally.

As I’m writing this, the song Reckless Love by Cory Asbury is playing. Those lyrics...Oh the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God!!

That’s what His forgiveness is...it’s love. And He gave it freely. For me. For you. For the one who hurt me. For the one who hurt you. For those who are on equal ground with us at the foot of the cross.

Choose to forgive. Christ did.

“Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love...Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:2, 31-32‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Art behind the story:

We are celebrating our 11th Birthday here at Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps, so we all chose done of our past favorites to feature. Hello My Name Is is what I used for the name tag on this page. The background is done with Typewriter Text and Give Thanks. To achieve the subtle background, I inked the words and leaves, and stamped them once on another piece of paper. Then, without inking again, I stamped them directly on the page. 

We are having LIVE demos on our Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps retail page on Facebook, as well as specials each week through out the month of November.  Be sure to be signed up for the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps email newsletter to stay up to date on all the happenings!

Grab a cup of warm cocoa, browse the store, and celebrate with us.

See you soon,

Gayle
Patio Ponderings