My Love...

Love heals...it stirs the heart and weakens the knees...

Love hurts...it sets a hook and tears the flesh from bones...

It seems a dark turn on a light and fluffy subject, yet we have all known love to hurt in some capacity or another. It takes courage to truly love another...it takes guts to truly care, to put others before yourself...it takes day in, day out commitment...

Love is not for the faint of heart....

The light 'n fluffy category is for the uninitiated, for the untrained...light 'n fluffy is for the serial daters, for the consistent droppers and discarders.....

I have finally learned at this late date what love is not...

Love does not control...it does not seek self-fulfilment....

Love does not debase...it does not seek to degrade, to push down into the mud and muck...

Love does not seek self-pleasure no matter the cost to the newest victim...

Love does not dear hearts....love is.

I have seen what love truly does dear hearts...most especially in the last 10 days...there is such good in people...I am brought to tears in the thinking of all that has transpired recently and the gracious offerings of those we haven't been in contact with for quite some time.

Where life may take away to the shock and bewilderment of mind and heart, God comes in like a flood to soothe, to comfort with a surplus of love and compassion.

I have spoken these words to my children and other family members, friends...once again, that love saves us. It holds us in place, it steadies our feet to walk a seemingly impossible road.

How the enemy seeks to destroy families...to create discord and frustration...envy and greed.

What is the cost that brings us low...the love of that which means nothing in the long run....we take nothing with us and how quickly we forget that in the face of things, of stuff, of money.

I take a step back and use that lens on personal items taken from me, kept from me, hidden and stolen from me from the monster I left behind...with a long range lens of time and self-reflection of the most intense kind I see that none of it truly matters. It matters not...in the face of character, of honour and integrity it is just that...momentary stuff I can replace with better over time.

But our hearts, our minds, our thoughts and feelings...our spiritual health...no matter what we believe or where we place our faith, this one concept stands out above the rest....

We are spiritual beings and as such we either create light and goodness within...build upon the foundational blocks of our very self to the betterment and growth of our spirit....

Or...we chip away at a rocky foundation built upon the backs of our victims...we dim the light until that tiny flame sits almost extinguished by the darkness surrounding it.

Oh how to express, emphasize, exhort the need for light, for love and compassion in a world full of dark and evil deeds. More and more with the aid of internet we are viewing a world growing and falling into a darkness unseen before in such numbers and capacity.

Who will stand....who will walk the path of righteousness and speak truth, speak life and liberty to those sitting under the yoke of a cruel master...

Who will stand against the forces of evil....no this isn't a Star Wars episode, or a snippet of the Avengers...it is much much worse. Monsters abound...they walk among us, smiling and shaking hands while they commit dark deeds done in secret.....

'For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.' Luke 8:17

In the days of World War II there were those who spoke of maintaining peace at all costs, of conscientious objectors....but in the words of Winston Churchill quoted from Edmund Burke....“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

I believe that we are in an age of requirement...of the necessity of standing against evil...against the destruction of women and children...whether it is by trafficking or abuse...We live in a time that will require us to stand...to step off the fence and land squarely on the side of love, of hope, of peace at the cost of enforcement...

Dear treasures...I hope you hear my heart this morning...I sincerely wish and pray for discernment and wisdom...that we will be filled with understanding and the heart of a warrior braced to walk the bastion, to guard the wall, to protect the innocent.

Dear lost ones...you will one day walk out of your situation and find the freedom you have been crying for...God hears your cries and will make a way...Waymaker, miracle worker, light in the darkness...always. How He loves each one...how He grieves for the pain and suffering you endure. He will make a way dear hearts...He made a way for me and I have seen it in so many other battle weary hearts...they have walked off a battlefield filled with landmines and claymores...stepped from the path of destruction and mayhem onto a path of peace, of hope, of loving kindnesses and compassion. And oh, the peace that floods the gates of hell, smashes through the walls and sweeps you up and out of that dark and dirty hole....

We carry some of that pain and sorrow with us, but my friends...I am testament to the passing, to the fading of all that garbage and filth...to the sweeping in of all that is good, all that is lovely, all that is peace and grace.

It replaces fear...

it replaces loathing

It replaces shame and regret as deep as the ocean....

Love saves us...kindness and compassion pull us back from the edge of sanity...

Remember dear hearts...there is life waiting outside your circumstances....oh it waits...it hopes, it breathes, it anticipates you're stepping off that path onto one built just for your step...uniquely yours.

Go today in hope, in love...think on these things....my prayer for you is one filled with compassion and understanding of the fear that pervades everything, every decision made in fear and anxiety. My prayer is for a mighty wind of strength and courage to push back the ever present fear....for Gods mighty Hand to come down and smash back the darkness and evil that would sink you deep in the mire, in the muck. You are a mighty warrior of God...a Queen...a daughter (son) of the most high. There is not one thing impossible to the Almighty...not one thing.

Go today and know that you are loved with a never ending, magnificently ever present LOVE...

Go today and walk in the knowledge that you are uniquely, wonderfully created just as you are. Oh, I see it...I see the darkness that covers, that cowers in the deep places waiting to spring forward and whisper lies over you...I say to that darkness, GO....I would speak life to those dark places...I would ask for a light that shines brighter than the sun to invade and take over every spot filled with acrimony, with shame, with horrible words and thoughts...

You are loved....loved in every way...every quirk, every giggle, every scar...loved and accepted, cherished and wanted.

Walk tall dear friends....stand proud...carry a giant stick and beat back that which strives to bring you down. One step...it starts and ends with one step...ends dear hearts....one step creates room for the next, creates courage and the audacity to stand for you, to speak truth to yourself first and foremost...

A word here, a word there...spoken with grace and dignity, but spoken in defence of that broken child, that broken down into pieces woman and the climb begins. A way made out of the pit with each moment of courage, of daring to believe in yourself.

Know this...you matter....no longer listen to the lies that tell you different...that would speak of being nothing, nobody and mattering to no one. Lies....every one. Each time you speak to those lies and hold up the light of love and truth, they will shrink away to the dark corners of hell where they belong. They do not belong to you....no sweet treasures, they originate in the bowels of the abyss where dark deeds are planned, orchestrated and carried out by the one you trusted to love you...to the one who betrays regularly.

Ah how the truth shines...how bright it blooms in the darkest of places...

Walk out your truth....and it is not such as this....no...not for you....worthy, wanted and wished for....God richly bless your day with peace, with fortitude, with fulness of joy no matter where you may be.