Giving the Love

I haven’t been giving this blog very much love lately.  A couple of posts here and there are not really what a blogger should do if she is committed to writing for her dedicated and most awesome readers.  After all, the literal dozen of you who read what I have to say here have been with me for years and that means a lot.  I should do better.

Okay, year.  And if we are being truthful here, my readership is much more intimate.  It’s mostly just you and you, and you over there, and my mom.  Hi, Mom!!

I can blame it on the summer and our crazy, no-schedule weeks combined with vacations and weekend outings and the 3 P’s of the season – planning, preparing, and packing – that take up most of my days, but really the lack of writing lately is just due to plain old laziness.

I have not been giving the love to this blog, and it feels a little lonely.

Isn’t that how it works with love in general?  Lack of love equals loneliness, alienation, isolation.  We learn as we mature that when we give the love, we feel the love.  When we work hard to love in our relationships, interpersonal or online, we get it back in heaps.

When I feel the love I get a little silly.  Cracking jokes, making goofy faces, and doing little dances are a few ways in which I show the love.  It’s just one of my many charms.  Some call it awkwardness.

I enjoy showing my silly-love to my children.  Not just an embarrassment tactic, it comes from within as the joy I feel around them translates into behaviors that make them squirm and smile.  When I feel the love, I give the love.  I’m sure they wish I wouldn’t give the love in this way, but this is the card they were dealt and they must learn to deal with it.

We hear all the time that God is love.  He gives the love via his Creation, vast mountain ranges and beautiful oceans and the remarkable living things that make up the Earth, as well as his Word, which pierces our souls exactly how and when we need it.  He gives the love via the Holy Spirit, who whispers in our ears as we struggle to make a big decision and fills our hearts with peace as we make the right choice.  And he gives the love via Jesus’ sacrifice and his comforting example of how to live in this confusing world.  One may argue that God does not give the love in silly ways like I do, but I dare you to do a quick internet images search for "silly animals" and tell me that God isn’t silly.

And those are just pictures of animals.

God gives the love, and he feels the love.  He is never lonely.  It is the same with us.  God designed us to be like him – he doesn’t want us to be lonely, he designed us to be loved.  He teaches us that to feel the love, we must give the love.  Lucky for us, his love goes on forever, and we are all able to receive it and are welcome to it.  Our part is only to give it back.  There are millions of ways to do this.

Writing about it is just one.

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Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God.  Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7 (NLT)