Love (...a post made by and borrowed from JAH)

(This is a post written by JA, It is wonderful and I think I need to share it with others. It is very true and gets me thinking about what (she/he) says here...)

Love
~~~~~~~~~

"If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth
But didn't love others,
I would only be making meaningless noise
Like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I had the gift of prophesy,
And if I knew all the mysteries of the future
And knew everything about everything,
But didn't love others,
What good would it be?
And if I had the gift of faith
So that I could speak to a mountain
And make it move,
Without love
I would be no good to anybody.
If I gave everything I have to the poor
And even sacrificed my body,
I could boast about it;
But if I didn't love others,
I would be of no value whatsoever.
Love is patient and kind.
Love is not jelous or boastful
Or proud or rude.
Love does not demand its own way.
Love is not irritable,
And it keeps no record
Of when it has been wronged.
It is never glad about injustice
But rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up,
Never loses faith,
Is always hopeful,
And endures through every circumstance.
Love will last forever..."

1 Corinthians 13:1-8


Love...I was thinking about it the other day, and I came to the conclusion that there really isn't a single definition for Love. Some might define Love as the feelings husbands and wives have for each other. Yes, I suppose it is, but aren’t the feelings parents have for their children also Love? Aren’t the feelings that brothers and sisters have for each other also Love? And the feelings that friends, or relatives have for each other? Isn't it all Love? Do you see what I mean when I say there is no single definition of it? The love a Mother has for her child is not the same as the love she has for her husband. The love a child has for his parent is not the same as the love he has for his sister. The love a person has for his friend is not the same he has for his enemy. Ah, yes, I did say enemy. I was thinking mostly about the love we, as Christians, should have for our enemies. It's so hard to love your enemies, but, as I learned from an elderly lady in my church, you don't have to like someone to love them. In other words, you can still love someone even if you don't like them. I find this very true in my case. I guess loving your enemies (and by enemies I mean those that are morally and spiritually wrong according to the Bible. I am not speaking yet of those that have wronged us by offending us in their manners or speech, thus making us resent them or be extremely annoyed with them) means having compassion towards them and praying for them to "see the light," if I may say it like that. I think to hate someone for what they believe (or what they don't believe) is only going to make them believe that what we (by "we" I mean Christians) say we believe in and what we actually do are quite opposites. We say we believe in God and follow the Bible, yet if we hate our enemies, what kind of message is the going to send across to them? By loving them with the Love God has given us, we can draw a step closer to conquering Hate. Now, about the other kind of enemies...those that we choose to make our enemies because of our dislike of their way of communicating or acting or speaking etc. I think it is just as important to love them too. You don't have to like them, but Love is, nevertheless, essential. If we caress and nurture a dislike for someone, we plant a seed of Hate. And if we allow it to grow, it will one day turn into a full-grown Hate. Aside from the Hate of Sin, Hate is never going to help anyone strengthen their relationship with God. Without Love, we cannot love God, and without God we are nothing.

Quotes by C.S.Lewis

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.

When you think Tim McGraw ....

Well I can hardly believe that I've been back home for about a month and a half... :( so sad cause I miss Europe soooo much!! What a wonderful opportunity though. I am so grateful to have been able to go. Since getting back I've been swamped with school and piano mostly. I cannot wait till I graduate! And I look forward to (hopefully) going to college as well. So, here is the VERY FAST and VERY QUICK update on whats gone on with me and my life:

* My other older sister is getting married :) YAY for her! The wedding is in June. It's been weird to have another sister getting married ... seems like it was just a few months ago that my eldest sister got married - but it was actually a year and a half ago! ... So we're having fun planning another one right now :)
* School-wise, here's what I'm doin:

English Lit. - I like it right now (lol i read Beowulf today!)
Advanced Math. - blah cause it takes so darn long, but i still dont mind it.
History - love it as always :)
Music - guitar is coming along, piano is A LOT of work right now (preparing for guild, festival, and senior recital!), and I'm also writing songs
Vocab. and spelling - haha its great
Gov. and Economics - fine, just fine
Writing - a lot but i like it
French - So so much better since I went to Europe and Mrs. Anne helped me!! :)
So I think thats my school right now. its actually a lot, believe it or not.

* Poor MK got her wisdom teeth pulled :( awww ... I miss her; "my best friend/sister" for 7 weeks!!
* Like I said above, I am getting ready to graduate. It's been soo crazy for me trying to figure out what I am going to be going this fall. Because I am one who does not really say what I think, and I keep all my thoughts and feelings "locked-up-inside", I think my parents dont understand what I really want to do and what my future plans are. Which is definitely not good for me. :( But I am praying hard about whats going to happen and I think God will lead me in His steps/Plans as long as I am looking to him......
* My older sis and her husband are doing well :) :) :) :) smiles will be explained later :) :) :) they just moved again (He is in the Air Force)
* Have I told you that I dont really enjoy shopping?? :P Thats what I've done Saturday, Sunday, and today - and I am sick of it. blah, whatever. Easter comes only once a year so who cares.
* Enchanted and August Rush are now favorite movies of mine!!! :)
* baby, baby, baby, baby .... from walk the line
* Camping, "The Office" marathons, fires, playing in the rain, going to the park with my dog, going to the library with siblings, Soccer, and Music in my car with the windows down ..... And that wraps it up.... until later ~a bientot :-)

~Soccer~

~Photography~

~In the Swiss Alps~

~My Best Friend and I, during my senior photoshoot :)~

~In Paris!!!~

~The Eiffel Tower~

Carrie Underwood - "Ever Ever After"

Good song - I love it!! =) and Enchanted was very cute too.

 bonjour!    I landed in frankfurt,
germany at 7:15 am GERMAN time friday,
december 28th 2007 ... thats 1:15 am
my time... - wow i was so tired that
night and fell asleep many times
(including in my dinner almost).
It was a 9 hour flight. - VERY
LONG. I am doing well now and i
am aready picking up alot of french =)
it was very overwhelming when i 1st got here
b/c eveyone was talking in french and german
and i could barley understand anything lol!
but its so much better now. it was pretty much
just a blur that day but i do remember
playing football (soccer) and going to bed at
8 pm (2 my Time). It took me maybe 2 minutes
to fall asleep. I woke up at 9 am with so
many foreign words spinning in my head and
some one playing the piano, and someone
playing the cello, and then someone playing
the violin...it was like waking up to PBR
classic radio =) there has been someone on
the cello, piano, guitar, violon, and
clairnet all day today ... it was wild when
they would all play together! (ha, they even
got me in on a few songs to play the piano
lol). and then all of the meals have been
absoulutley great. meals are a time when
the family eats all together and then talks
for a wihle afterwards. i actually love it.
we walked around Trier town sqaure and were
able to see several old ancient roman ruin
... very cool. hopefully can get some
pictures up ASAP :)

Random Post

**Songs in the Closet - The most beautiful love song you can sing to the Lord is the one that nobody hears.**

i am not, but i know I AM

Ok, so church last night was fantastic and really caught my mind. After P&W, we watched a short movie that was recorded during Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio’s How Great Is Our God tour this past spring I believe. We watched Louie’s sermon on the universe - how vast and so big it is. I love science and astronomy (sleeping under the stars =D); mostly b/c it shows how incredibly awesome and huge God is (One of my fav. Books is I am not, but I know I AM, which talks a lot about that kinda stuff … I highly recommend it). It was a real eye-opener! I mean, come on - The heavens are telling the glory of God, and their expanse declares the work of His hands. Night after night they remind us of just how small we are, and how huge God is. Looking out into the far reaches of the universe, we find a seemingly infinite expanse of mystery and wonder, intricately fashioned b a God of unfathomable size and power. Just a glimpse of one of the billions of visible galaxies He has formed resizes us - no, shrikes us, and the world we call home, to a seemingly insignificance in an instant. But, I think the biggest thing that struck me was the fact that even though the universe is bigger than I can possible imagine or comprehend, my own body is a living miracle and just as complex! As tiny as we may seem, the God who knows every star by name Knows Yours and Mine! Talk about wow … So, here is pretty much the sum of what Louie talked about and he also included some pretty amazing pictures -

First off, Louie shows us a picture of M51 or the whirlpool galaxy astronomers call it the "darling of astronomy." Louie tells us two things about this galaxy in the deep reaches of space. 1.) Every second there are new stars being born. Millions of star incubators are found within the whirlpool galaxy. 2.) Not only that, but at the center of this galaxy is a black hole which the Hubble Telescope took a picture of...and wow, check this out:
The entire universe displays God's fingerprint and this is just one example...the cross of Jesus was on the mind of God even as he was creating the universe. Is that not incredible?!? Putting that picture back in our heads, Louie continued in the universe focusing on the stars with the purpose of showing us just how small we are and how BIG God is. Just to let you know, We serve a BIG God!! Louie took us to a few stars and put it into perspective: If the earth was a golf ball... The sun would be 15 feet in diameter Another star would be the equivalent of 6 empire state buildings Or 2 golden gate bridges

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ifzlwJL8s

We are so very very small...Our significance is in our insignificance. God cares for us so much that his same fingerprint can be found within us. Louie then looked within the human body and showed us just how great our God is. When we are developing in our mothers womb...just for the eye to function a million nerve endings start to travel to the eye and another million from the eye to the brain, these nerve ending meet up and have to find their EXACT match in order for the eye to work...that is AMAZING to me.

Though he went into more details the "finale" of the talk was this…let’s talk about the “wows” … LAMININ - Every living creature has laminin inside of them...the purpose of laminin is that it basically keeps our bodies from falling apart. It holds we as one united whole. wanna see what laminin looks like??? I know you do.... check this out!
Pretty sweet huh? OK, I thought so at least. The cross is EVERYWHERE...it casts a shadow over the entire universe...constantly reminding us of what Jesus did for the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejj51hNIL3E

words escaped my mouth the moment Louie put this on the screen so I will leave you with that...Laminin … wow. But as tiny as we may seem, the God who knows every star by name also knows yours, and mine. Your life is a miracle, and the creator of the universe knows you by name. God cares for you more than you can ever know - he knows you more than you could ever know yourself! He's big enough to breathe out stars, yet intricate enough to fashion together the trillions of cells that make up every facet of who you are. The God who spoke the universe into existence made you, too, and knows everything about you. From the smallest molecule to the situation you find yourself in right now, He's aware of your circumstances and intimately acquainted with everything you do. And He cares about you and promises to carry you through.

That's where we find hope in the midst of the darkest places in life. The journey often complicated and painful, filled with confusion and chaos. Yet, the cross of Christ reveals God's promise to preserve and restore you no matter what the circumstance. God will not completely take life’s challenges away (although he can), but better yet, he gives you the strength to push on, to continue on through it all. He will hold onto you and hold you together, giving strength to those who hope in His unfailing love. He is the everlasting God!

**** So, in a nutshell pretty much that was what was talked about =D I guess it was kinda long, but I felt like it needed to be shared. I hope that this maybe encouraged, because it sure encouraged me. ~Psalm 33 ****