The Love of God.

I generally understand things better, as well as remember things better, if I write them down. It must have something to do with the connections between the brain and the fingers or something, or maybe it is the combination of brain, fingers and eyes along with having to think things out in a little more deliberate manner when writing them down. Regardless, writing helps me, so those who read this will probably have to put up with my thinking on paper, or in this case on screen, from time to time.
Lately, whenever I read a book I keep a pen and pad of paper at hand so when I have a thought or when I read something that really hits home I write it down immediately. I’ve also been keeping a notebook right next to my bed (which happens to be the floor, I’ve decided that maybe a bed as hard as a board will help my aching back, besides being good practice for sleeping outside on the ground) and that notebook is getting filled with those thoughts that often come to mind when I am either half asleep or entirely asleep and wake up because of them! I also take it with me while driving so if you were to flip through it you would find quite a few pages written really sloppy and you could know that was done on the road. Fortunately, I don’t plan on letting anyone read it.
One thought I had the other night was about treasure, actually, I was thinking of the scripture “…where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” and I thought, where is my treasure? That is really an important question we should ask ourselves. Conversely, if we don’t know where our treasure really is we should be able to find out where our heart is and that will tell us exactly where our treasure is. If my treasure is not with my Heavenly Father it is in the wrong place. Where is your treasure? What do you value the most? I had to think about it because right now I value this land an awful lot. Anyone finally get something of their own that is what they have dreamed of for 20 years? If you have you’ll know what I mean about value! I’ve got to remind myself that this belongs to God and He has made me steward over it for a time, I had better be a good steward and had better not value the thing given more than the giver!
I thought for a while about other things that I value, my books for instance, my violin, guns, and even more than those things (which are replaceable) friendships (which are not replaceable). So do I value God more than all of these things? Most of the time I do. But that won’t do at all! It’s got to be all the time, every minute of every day, more than life, friends, things or comforts. I got a real glimpse of this when my younger sister got married. I thought she was absolutely ridiculous because all she would or could think about was Kyle. It got to the point where she couldn’t do anything without relating it to him in some way or another! She wanted to talk to him all day long and all night too but the boys in the house would unplug the phone line outside so she couldn’t, which made her really mad. The tricks we played! I just hope that nobody is as mean if I am ever in her position! Everything that happened during the day was exciting because “Oh, I’ve got to call and tell Kyle!” She was madly in love and we all thought she had really gone mad. All of the boys promised each other that we would NEVER do such things and if we ever showed symptoms the others were required to do whatever it took to wake us up!
We claim to love God. Fine, but do our actions show it? Are we so preoccupied with Him that we don’t care about going out and having fun because we would rather spend time with Him instead? Do we talk to Him so much that our brothers want to disconnect the phone line? Do we relate everything throughout the day to Him in one way or another and do we run to tell Him the least exciting thing that happened in our day? Do we practically worship every little word He says? Do we do whatever it takes to please Him?
It’s a sobering thought for me, maybe it is for you too. It made me think about the priorities in my life and I’ll tell you, some of them have changed! If we love God as we should, our actions will change. It will show. Jenifer couldn’t hide the fact that she loved Kyle any more than she could have hidden the fact that she was breathing. If we love God it will pour out of us to everyone around.
Today the soloist at church sang “The Love of God” and while I was playing it I got started thinking about this subject again, which is probably why you are reading about it now, I really should have been paying attention to her so I wouldn’t run away with the music and leave her behind gasping for a breath of air. I tend to do that sort of thing when I get excited! Thinking about how much God loves us is good, loving Him more than I do is even better!