Love NEVER Fails

It has been said many times how love is an action word but I would find out just what kind of actions I'd need to have once I said 'I do. The day I said I do has changed my life forever. I still remember the excitement in my mind of marrying my best friend was all I could think about and nothing else seemed to matter. For better or worse sickness and health until death did us part. This was going to be tested quicker than I knew. Just a few months after getting married things began to get rocky.

Financial hardship, unplanned pregnancy, and lack of maturity were going to test the love that we said we had for one another. This was the moment where I wanted to give up so badly and felt like I would be justified in doing so. Yet God kept telling me over and over that this was not his desire to see us give up on our love. In these really hard and trying moments, I was reminded of God's word of how nothing would separate us from his love and that his love was there for us no matter what.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 8:38-39

I really want to focus on that part and share from that place. I learned in the trying moment of my marriage really what unconditional love looked like. It didn't look like always getting along, it didn't even look like always feeling in love and it definitely didn't look like those love films I saw on TV. It looked like seeing the best in your partner in their dark moment and speaking life. Showing kindness even when it was undeserving. It looked like putting someone else's needs before your own wants and desires and the person doing the same for you.

These moments of hardship taught me that love is not selfish but if both people were willing to serve each other with their whole hearts neither would be neglected. That it would not be about how you feel but about your desire to truly love your partner not just through words but actively. That every day each person could think of one another first and both people be filled with love that overflowed until their children, families, and/or communities.

Embodying this unselfish love will help us have grace when this person messes up or does something we don't like. Grace would give us the courage to address the situation in love and not look for the situation to happen again and again. This grace would speak over the person reminding them that they are not their mistakes but instead it would remind them of who they are despite the mistake. This would then empower the person to believe that they can do better.

I watched this video on YouTube of a couple and the man told his woman why he loved her. What stood out to me is that she encourages him despite his shortcomings and he said this helped him to be a better man. It truly helped me understand that as a wife, mother, and friend I had the power to uplift with my words. That being graceful is saying I see what you are doing and tell you I see you beyond that place and that I know you will come out of it even if you don't see that yet.

This is the love I encourage us to share. In this period of time what we need now more than ever is the love of God and I'm thankful for the struggles I've had, that have helped me see where I have lacked in being that. Look at your life where or who have you not shown love to lately? What are the steps you can do to change that? I pray that as you identify these areas God's love and grace overflows in you so that you can be that towards those you come in contact with.