1) Love God

2) Love Yourself

3) Love Others As God Loves You

4) Laugh

Love God-

This seems so easy and simple to say.  However, living as if we did love him and our lives did matter about him says differently.  The intimacy required to love our God takes us to places where we, ourselves, would never choose to be.  Solitude and Silence are those destinations that seem so frightening to go to.  I never could have imagined how loud silence can be.  Have you ever been there? Where the sound of silence starts to grow more and more.  I know for me it is very uncomfortable to just sit and wait on God, my anxiety pushes hard through my heart.  The spiritual warfare that is about to take place is so unsettling our bodies almost refuse the break from our perceived realities.  Every part of us that enjoys the sin we struggle with turns up the heat and begins throwing every bad, shameful and regretful thing you have done.  However, our God will meet us right there and remind us that none of those thing matter to him, because His first born paid the price.  Our sins are not an issue for our Father.  He receives us with open arms even when we have taken all of ourselves and wasted away.  I want to love back a Father that loves me unconditionally and How I start doing that consistently is on me.  How bad do I really want this?

Love Yourself-

Shakespeare says ” To thine own self be true.”  The meaning is you can only love yourself if you are true to yourself.  We constantly listen to and believe the lies that are whispered to us all the time of who we think we are.  If I could just remember that we are running this race from the finish line and that His Will is already done, I could avoid so many defeats even future ones.  Today, I learned the most effective weapon I use against myself is my brain.  I can’t possibly love myself if I find the wrong in every right thing that I do.  I have to STOP THE STINKING THINKING!  My desire this year is to ignore, take captive and re-direct my thoughts all under the Surrender of my Father, GOD!  In that embrace I can accept that I am awesome in God’s eyes because when I look at my reflection I see Jesus looking back!  I am in Him as He is in Me! I am created in His image. Amen!

Love Others As God Loves You-

One of the newer revelations in my life is as I concern myself with the well being and prayer life for others, my life seems less hectic.  When you take the time to pour into people who are in your crown of life, Jesus helps you with yours.  I must stay close with him and spend my quality time with him, but ultimately as I do His Will, he watches over me.  There is a peace that comes when you carry others burdens and pray for people to find healing, comfort or salvation.  There are many sermons taught on loving others but rarely is it modeled by those same people.  I, however, have been blessed to have people in my life that Jesus placed there to model it for me.  I had this for many years but my eyes had scales on them and I couldn’t get past my Stinking Thinking! God has reached me through others showing love for me than in any other way.  God has revealed times in my past where I have poured out and just couldn’t remember because I was so preoccupied with my failures and myself.  God has let me know through friends, players from the past and present, and new friends how my words have impacted them for God’s Glory!  I can tell you from my experience though many times there were tears, most of the time it was done through laughter.  I believe laughter is a spiritual gift, the ability to bring joy out of someone who is in a place of darkness or pain. It may be brief and for a moment, but it is the exact amount of time that person needed.  Laughter makes the Soul Smile!

Laugh-

My fondest memories are of laughter.  I can think back to several times when I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard.  Even though life has and will be a roller coaster of feelings, I still have been able to maintain the ability to laugh.  Then I realize how important laughter is to our health the more I see how it influences people in our life.  They want what we have!  The ability to draw out a smile or make someone giggle is priceless.  We only have so much time here on Earth and we all deal with enough drama that the world throws at us, the rest of the time we should be laughing.  Being funny(at the right times) is indeed a spiritual gift and gives people a place to release both good and bad emotions.  When laughter is used for uplifting, encouragement or even healing the response is Amazing.  I am so thankful to Christ for my sense of humor and especially for the affect it has on people around me.

I want to thank God for giving me these “4 L’s” of living, remember my friends:

1. Love God
2. Love Yourself
3. Love Others As God Loves You
4. Laugh

One Love, One King, All Christ!