God’s Extravagant Love

Happy Valentines’ Day, Mamas!

Every year I make sure to perform quality assurance tests on the Hershey and Dove chocolates that magically appear in my grocery cart.. ? I know, I’m such a good mom. 😉

Have you seen any Instagram-worthy photos of red and pink bouquets in your newsfeed today? Sometimes it can be easy to want that attention for ourselves and then wonder why we didn’t get that bouquet or that sweet card of flowery poetry. Is there something wrong with us? Insecurity can creep in when we focus on ourselves.

In our post, What I Really Need to Hear on Valentine’s Day, those wise ladies flipped the script from a focus on dissatisfaction to a focus on serving. While learning to focus on others, we can also look to God’s heart when we feel that insecurity.

Instead a single bouquet, He gave us hundreds of fields of flowers to admire and enjoy. Instead of a single gourmet meal, He invented hundreds of tasty delicacies to salivate over (#allthechocolate). Instead of a single meal with one fantastic view, God fashioned an entire world featuring colorful canyons, fast-moving rivers, vast oceans and towering mountains for us to explore. God has no limits and neither does the extent of His Love.

Today you may not have a greeting card in your mailbox but you do have a whole book that tells you how much He loves you. God is not silent about His love for you.

Author Philip Yancey says, “Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?”

Today may we open His love letter to us and savor His immense love for us. Better yet, do you have two minutes to do that right this moment? Check out John 3:16. Read it in two other Bible translation versions like The Message or NIV. Read it slowly; really take it in. Fill up on His love; it’s less fattening and a lot more fulfilling than chocolate. 😉

~Virginia

New Year, Same Us in 2020

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What if we actually journeyed toward acceptance rather than challenging ourselves to do more this new year? Maybe it’s my age, but when I think of turning the page into a new decade, I am ready to take off my superhero cape I proudly donned in 2010 when I met my husband and prepared myself to become super-wife/mom/career-woman. What a mistake that was!

Three miles per hour — scientists claim this is the official pace of peace, our walking pace. And you know what? Jesus did not hustle or hurry. Why do we feel the need to rush and push?

Truth: We can choose to carry into each new day, new year, new decade, the solid truth that we can live loved just the way we are. In our normal, everyday comings and goings, we are blessed. We do not have to wait to be accepted to walk in this truth: God loves us before we lose the weight, declutter the house, or get the title. Can we be brave enough to love ourselves too?

Ephesians reminds us that even in our sin, he embraced us. He loves us so much, and He is so rich in mercy! (Ephesians 2:4-7) Can we accept that embrace? Can we accept that mercy?

How can we pray for you, dear reader in our TtT Tribe? We want you to enter into 2020 free and clear, whatever that may mean for you.

? Jo

Soaking in the Truth

Scripture to encourage you:

“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)… For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:4-7 & 10, NLT).

Music to inspire you:

“Heroes”
“Holy Water”

Readings and Resources to come alongside of you: