What is Love?

The Bible verse for this week's Word Art Wednesday card challenge is Deuteronomy 6:5:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.". (NKJV)

To continue on...... "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." (Deut. 6:6-7)

WOW!!  We are commanded to love God with all our heart, soul and strength. Isn't this hard to do? Our first love usually is 'self'.......then maybe we put God next on the "people to love" list.

The world's view of "love" is totally messed up. That view is "I'll love you if you love me." or "I love you because I can profit off of you or you have something that I need."  And when you disappoint me or are no longer of benefit to me, I don't love you anymore.  How else can you explain the broken homes and relationships that are commonplace in the world today. The world does not know what true love is.

What is True Love? Or maybe I should ask "WHO is True Love?" The answer is God....

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:7-11  NKJV)

WOW again!   We can love only because God first loved us. When we stop to think about God first loving us and sending Jesus to die for us, while we were yet sinners and God's enemy, this should cause us to love God even more. When we love God more than anything, then the words of Deuteronomy 6:6-7 will be manifested in our daily walk. We will keep His Word and commandments in our heart. We will teach His Word to our children. We will meditate on His Word and speak it to others throughout the day. And we will love one another with a Christ-like love.

One way that we can show love to others is by encouraging them......maybe by sending them a hand-written note to let them know that we are thinking of them.

 Here is the card that I am entering in the challenge. The hydrangea was cut out of some paper that I found at Michael's last week. They had packets of 6x6 papers (12 sheets in a packet) in their dollar bins!!  These were Paula Deen brand. (I guess Paula has ventured into the world of papercrafts!) The background paper that the hydrangea is attached to is from My Mind's Eye 6x6 "Dwell" collection and the green piece with the Bible verse is the reverse side of the background paper.  A blue bow was added to the neck of the vase.  I glued the hydrangea directly to the background paper and used foam tape to attach the Bible verse.

And here is a little secret.....I found the "Dwell" collection (6x6 pad) at TJMaxx!!!!  $2.99!!!!  They have a nice little colletion of papercrafting supplies (paper, adhesives, ribbon).

I hope this inspires you to encourage someone this week with a handwritten card.