There are numerous things that get harder as we age, but I am learning that there is one thing that can actually get easier.
I thought of this recently, when saying good-bye to a friend. As I spoke the words, I realized how they easily rolled off my tongue, how much more often I speak them and how saying them now comes with little requirement to hear them back.
Just three little words, yet, they come forth with ease, meaning and a burning need to speak them … now, while I can.
I love you
I am not certain of when it happened, or why, but those three words have been falling out of my mouth, in increasing frequency. Though they are words that have often been shared with my family, I have sensed a need to speak them to others … and not for the purpose of hearing them echoed back in my own ears … but simply because I need to hear myself affirming those around me that they are loved … that loved is how I define them.
As I think about it, I think that maybe God has been working on my heart.
All of our lives is a constant refining process. We begin deeply loved by our Creator. He loves us, just as we are, even though we are saturated by sin. But, he doesn’t leave us to decay from sin, he works within us to purify and refine us, purging us of what can destroy us, even though it might hurt for awhile.
As I look back I can see evidence of that refining process. Those times that left me crying out for help, for relief. Those times when all I could say was why? Those times when the life hurt, when loneliness was great, when I didn’t have any answers.
No one wants to be refined, but we all want the results of the refining process.
Through refining we become a combination of harder and softer. We become more aware of our reliance on God. We become more aware of who God places in our lives.
We become more aware that our need is greater to give love than to receive it … and that in giving it, we receive it.
Love is the tool as well as the product of the refining process of God in us. As he works through us, our weakness to truly love is exactly what he uses to refine us, strengthening us to love others … not in our strength, but in his.
“If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2b)
“Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” (Romans 13:8)
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:12)
itsawonderfilledlife 