Small things.

 

 

 

Today,

for the first Valentines Day since my husband and I have been married,

I woke up alone.

 

He is working out of town.

 

Bummer.

 

It seems as though, lately, my entire family is scattered.

 

All of our schedules have been wacky, crazy busy, and rarely line up with eachother's.

 

Between work,

school,

appointments,

commitments,

retreats,

sleepovers,

and life in general...

it's been almost impossible to get all of us under the same roof at the same time.

 

The last two times my daughter has spent the day home from college, her Dad was out of town working.

 

We haven't even been able to celebrate her 20th birthday all together yet.

 

We keep waiting for the time that we are all available and in the same state!

 

Her birthday was January 31st!

 

Very, very sad.

 

This is not like us at all and I think we are all beginning to feel the effect from it.

 

I am blessed to say, that we all really do like to spend time with eachother.

 

The truth is,

things flow better when we all have time together.

 

We are able to connect in a special way that only the five of us can.

 

I must admit,

for this momma and wife...

it's starting to get to me.

 

This momma hen loves her chickadees and adores her rooster!

 

This new season has been a great reminder for me of how important it is to make the very best of the moments that we DO have together.

 

Soak them up mommas and wives.

Let them seap into your heart until they are overflowing!

Hug them, hug again, then hug some more!

Squeeze em' tight!

 

 

A couple of years ago, my husband and I stopped giving to one another on Valentines Day.

Sounds a little crazy, but really it's not.

We found, after 20 years of marriage,

that our love needed to be celebrated 365 days of the year, not just one.

We do our best to make every day special.

And it's not just about gifts.

 

It's about creating intimacy with one another, and I'm not talking just physical.

Intimacy is creating an atmosphere of closeness and familiarity.

It's about having deep understanding of one another.

It's an expression of love.

 

For me...

there isn't anything more romantic, than walking in from a long day of errands to your husband standing at the stove cooking supper.
Or when he calls me in the middle of the day, in the midst of his crazy schedule, to see how my day is going.
Or when I get in my car, and he has filled up my gas tank.
Hubba, hubba!

 

For him...

he loves when I listen to him. Intently.With all of my focus and attention. No cell phone in hand. About whatever it is that he wants to tell me. Whether that be his day at work or a new tool he saw at Lowe's.
Or attempting to still learn his first language, Cajun French, after 23 years together.
Or helping him tend his vegetable garden and watering it before he gets home from work.

Be still my heart!

 

For both of us...

praying together for our family,
accomplishing our goals,
fixing one another's cup of coffee in the morning,
 and holding hands while watching TV at night.

It's about caring about what eachother cares about.
It's about learning their love language.
It's about loving extravagantly every day.

It's about doing small things with great love...all year round.

It's about loving today and each day that follows, just as God loves.
Without ceasing or without fail.

It's something we want to pass down to our children,
 because they will look to us and our marriage and our life together as they begin theirs with their own spouses one day.
We want them to know we loved eachother well.
Not always perfect, but consistently.

The way we show our love every day will have more impact on them,
than just the love we show on Valentines Day.
 

So, with all that said...we started showering our kids with love on Valentines Day.

They are the product of our love and that is something to be celebrated!!

 

 

In the celebration of Valentines Day,

I found a few pictures and quotes that best describe how I feel about my Fantastic Four!

 

They have truly made my life worth living!

 

 

 

 

 

And for my Savior,

Who is my heart's delight!

 

 

 

 

1 Corinthians 13

 

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

² If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

^3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

 

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

^8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

¹¹ When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

¹² We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

¹³ But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

 

 

 

Happy Valentines Day!

 

Do small things with great love!