This Day

A couple events in the last few days have reminded me that love is not something only showered at Valentine’s Day on some special sweetheart but something that pours from your heart every day because the love of God cannot be contained in your own heart.

Recently I told a friend that I wanted to do more for God in 2008 – give more Bible studies, train more people, go to more places, touch more lives. She kindly reminded me that while it is good to aspire to great things, I should never forget that it is the little acts of love and kindness that I do that will be most remembered and cherished by those who knew me.

I immediately thought of Twila, an elderly lady I met in the hospital two weeks ago when visiting a Bible study contact who was there. She was in the next bed and after hearing me pray with Kathy, she called me to her bedside. “Would you please pray for me?” she asked me. I told her I would be honored to. The look of appreciation on her face when I took her hand and prayed for her healing melted my heart. That was the beginning of a friendship and the next time I came to visit Kathy, I spent time with Twila learning about her family and her faith in God. She wants me to visit her even after she's discharged.

This morning I thought of my friend Vickie. She began attending my church last September after watching the Doug Batchelor Here We Stand series on 3ABN. Several months prior she’d begun watching 3ABN and had come to question the beliefs she’d known and believed for the last 35 years as a Baptist. I remember one Sabbath in December when she opened her heart to me after Sabbath School. She was convinced about the Sabbath and felt it was time to make a break with her church. I listened as she told me of her fears and struggles about leaving her husband, three children and their families, many friends, and the choir and quartet in which she sang. I prayed with her and supported her when she wrote a letter resigning all of her church offices and later when her friends voted her out of the quartet. I tried to make her feel welcome in our church by inviting her to join our choir and to become part of a discipleship small group I am starting.

This morning I received an email from Vicki that brought tears of joy to my eyes. She thanked me for inviting her to be part of the discipleship team and expressed her eagerness to learn how to share her new faith with confidence. She told me how much she is enjoying choir – even more than the last choir she was in. She loved singing the song “This Day” with my friend Cindy and I at the Valentine’s Banquet this past Sunday and wants to continue singing as a trio. Her sweet letter told me I have made a friend and that she feels loved, accepted, and at home with us even though she is not yet a member.

Love … it is such a powerful force. It wins hearts, provides courage, and builds bonds of friendship that will last for eternity. This Valentine’s Day I am so thankful that I can love people and make a huge difference – not through big events (though they definitely have their place and I enjoy these as well) – but through "small" acts of love and kindness and friendship. I believe in the end these acts are the ones that people will remember about me most and it is how I want them to remember me. So I am aim to show love … This Day.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

John 13:34, 35.

Vicki is on the left and my friend Cindy is on the right. May the words to this beautiful song touch you as much as they have us.