Love is action, not feeling

I can't remember who said love is action, not feeling, but I've come to realize the wisdom in that perspective. It's easy to say you love someone, but demonstrating that takes real effort. I thought about that this past weekend as we travelled 1200miles to help my brother celebrate his 50th birthday and to visit my husband's cousin, whose cancer has spread. The only reason we made such a trip in the midst of bad weather was because we love these people. Our presence is important to them, which made the grueling trip worth all the effort. The Bible says that God is love, and those who love are of God. I guess that is why love, like God, is powerful. That power drew us across hundreds of miles of frozen landscape to see two people who are important in our lives. I like to think they would do the same if our positions were reversed. Maybe by being there to show our love, we made God's presence real for them.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Growing Old

I realized this weekend that the last two funerals I've been to have been for the brothers of friends and fellow church members. Death is starting to hit closer to home. I've been thinking about getting older a lot lately. I guess to some extent that's a good thing so I don't take any of the time left for granted. Where once we went to graduations and wedding showers and weddings and baby showers, now we are supporting the same friends at funerals. I suspect there will be more of that. It's that time of life. I trust God will see us through this time of life as God has seen us through the previous stages. How grateful I am to have my faith to fall back on. I will try not to depress my sons too much with the constant reports of illness and death. Life still produces lots of good news to celebrate as well.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue