We received a lot of love the past couple weeks. And it both touched us and taught us so much. One thing reinforced to Jer and I is the fact that love is so simple. Its not complicated, it just requires action. Because really, the smallest act of kindness can feel like the most beautiful gift in the world when you're in the midst of a battle, walking wounded and weary. A text in the middle of the night from an old friend saying they are praying, a message from someone you haven't spoken to since high school encouraging you in the place where you are at, a stranger with a kind word or even just a genuine smile ... giving these things to someone takes just a moment of your time, receiving these things from someone can be oxygen when you feel like you are suffocating.
We all have times where we need some extra love ... we all have times where we just feel too tired and too worn down to pray another word or fight another day, and in those battle weary states, its the arms of friends, and even the arms of strangers, that lift us up.
Sometimes to make love real and active, all it takes is slowing down. Because when we slow down we see the person in front of us. We see needs of others as opportunities to show love rather than as interruptions to our schedules. Love requires a willingness to be incovenienced. It is in our willingness to be inconvenienced that we give love the space to grow. And there were so many people that took the time and even inconvenienced themselves in an attempt to support, encourage and show our family love the past couple of weeks. We have been blessed by so many acts of love. We have been changed by it.
And isnt this what life is about ... people ... relationship ... love ... Family and friends divide our hardships and they multiply our joys. People need people. We need relationship, we need love, we need each other. You can never go wrong when you spend time investing in people. You never know what a smile, text, kind word, message, phone call can do for someone. You never know how much it might impact their lives. But probably more than you would think.
Jeremy and I were so impacted by acts of love for us the past couple of weeks that we came home with a resolve to change some things about the way we live. We are choosing to be more intentional about slowing down and allowing more time and space to be inconvenienced ... to see the needs in front of us and act on them more. To be more generous with our time. To invest more fully in people, because people, not possessions, really are are the only eternal treasures.
Thank you for loving us and our family so well. Our lives have been so impacted by it. Because of you, we have learned to love better, and we are forever grateful.
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