February – The Month of Love or is it?

I just finished re-reading Gary Chapman’s book, “The Five Love Languages.” The first time I read this book, it was life-changing. As a young wife and mother, I discovered in those early years that my husband’s love language was Acts of Service, so if the house was picked up when he walked through the door after work (even if it was a disaster all day), he felt loved. As our children grew and we discovered their love languages, we tried to help them feel loved by using their love language as a base.

February is known as the month of Love and Valentine’s Day; traditionally not my favorite day for all of the following reasons:

1. Really, one day that you are supposed to show people that you love them?
2. ARG! The spousal expectations of both giving and receiving gifts of Love!
3. Celebrating Love is everywhere – what if you just don’t feel it?
4. When the kids were in school and not dating someone (and all their friends were)- it was ugly!

I think wanting to feel loved and not feeling loved can be one of the most challenging places in our lives. Sometimes, we can have people all around us and not feel loved for various reasons.

I desire to be intentional about showing Love to those around me and my immediate circle. But, more than that, I want to see and engage with those around me. Being intentional is definitely a work in progress, but sometimes, the Lord prompts us and allows us to demonstrate God’s Love, and I have two stories I want to share:

I was on the phone with our daughter in NYC, with a lot of background noise, and I asked her what she was doing. She was at an ATM, getting money out for a homeless person she had an encounter with because of a prompting from the Holy Spirit. 

My second story is personal. Do you know how occasionally, a person in your view just catches your eye and makes an impression on your heart? My husband and I were out running errands across town and stopped in a Mcdonald’s to get a bite and regroup. A young couple with a newborn came in, and immediately, I was drawn to them. I couldn’t stop watching as Dad fed him and then held him up for Mom to take selfies of the 3 of them from across the table. As we were leaving, I told Mom how cute he was and Dad how I enjoyed watching him with the baby. We walked out of the restaurant, and the Holy Spirit prompted me to go back and see if they had eaten. She replied, No, Ma’am, very politely, so I left them some cash. I don’t know anything about them or their situation, but I know that the Lord wanted me to give. I will likely never come in contact with them again, but their sweet little faces are etched in my mind today. They will be prayed for, and I trust that the Lord will use our brief encounter for his glory. 

My job is to be obedient in all things, which means that I need to slow down and be intentional in my interactions with people. To see, engage, and discern how I can show LOVE in those brief encounters.

Today, Lord, please let me love my neighbors as myself, by not being in such a hurry and looking each person I come into contact with, in the eye and really “SEE” them, engage with the cashiers, with the people I see on my walk, with people I see as I am shopping. Amen

I pray I will have made someone feel seen, heard, and loved because I took the commandment of Christ seriously in Matt 22:37-39:

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

 The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Mt 22:37–39). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.