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my valentine :: Thursday E-Devotion

Being a husband.  Being a dad.  What better day than Valentine's Day!  I got to give the girl I really care about a note and some goodies that I hope say something about my love.  It was also awesome to watch our kids this morning see how love vividly poured out.  The girls asked for a rose, and the boy...he was fine with anything 'spiderman'.
 
I love writing those precious cards to my wife, and I found just the one.  NO, I will not let you read it or even know what it said.  Sorry.  But I will tell you that it was cool and something that was from my heart.  Guys, we have to love our wives and show 'em often how we feel (I really don't do that enough).  Know what?  Our kids deserve to know that their dad loves their mom.  Show 'em.
 
Soaking all this mushy stuff in, I heard from God in a vivid, colorful way yesterday through one of my favorite bands, FEE.  Here are the lyrics of their song "What Else Can I Do":
 
Your love for me is a healing comfort for me
Your grace to me is a matchless gift to me
Your power in me is a mighty river in me

At the end of the day with the setting of the sun
After all is said and done

What else can I do but worship
What else can I do but bow
'Cause all I really long for is You
And all I really yearn for is You

Your sovereignty is a sure foundation for me
Your care for me is enduring peace in me
Your hope in me brings a sweet surrender to me
 
That is the love of God spelled out in a fresh and real way for me.  How about you?  As I think about demonstrating my love to my family and demonstrating God's love to our community, I am struck by the fact that God has lived and breathed how to do just that.  We are to 'go all out' in showing our wives and the world just what the love of God is like.  Think about it:
 
Ephesians 5:25 (msg) --- Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting.
 
In a crude sense of the season, we are God's valentine.  He did everything for us.  He desires to live through us and to give us the very best.  That is love.  Sparing no expense to love someone else without any thought of return.  That is the act of asking someone to be your valentine or in becoming a valentine. 
 
People, lets let our love become more and more like God's love.  Pretty good thought for such a special day, Valentine's Day.
 
1 John 4:17 (nlt) --- And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect...
 
Ephesians 5:2 (nlt) --- Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
 
Romans 8:38 (nlt) --- And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.
 
Lets choose to love our family and lost people like that, like God does.

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