Love!

I have been thinking a lot about love this week….both God’s love for us and our efforts to love Him and each other.

Pete and I met at Shandon. He was working with the youth, and I was working with the college department. Back then, Shandon was so small, we only had one minister for both Youth and College! Sometimes, he would have an activity for the older youth and the college so his time wouldn’t be so divided. Pete and I met while we were “chaperoning” these events! We dated quite a while and during that time, he talked me into moving down to the youth department to work with the kids. They were always asking us, “When are you going to get married?” Well, one Sunday, Pete (in cahoots with the Youth Minister) asked me to marry him in front of the whole youth department! Believe it or not, I was speechless!! He truly surprised me! Needless to say, it didn’t take long for the word to get around when about 100 youth went to church and told their parents what happened in Sunday School that day!!! Pete and I were singing in the choir, and I could see smiles and whispers being directed our way when we first came into the choir loft! That fun proposal was a good signal to me that life was never going to be dull with Pete Richards as my husband! :) We shared a sweet, deep love and appreciation for each other. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t times when I wanted to strangle him!!! I am sure he never felt that way about me! Ha! But we quickly learned that life was much better when we could figure things out together rather than fight about them, when we laughed instead of argued, when we hugged instead of giving each other a cold shoulder. Cherish your earthly love…don’t take it for granted! Work on it, make it better, enjoy it…trust me, life can change way too quickly! I miss the “love of my life” so much! I love thinking about Pete being in Heaven and enjoying what must be an incredible life there, but oh, my… I sure do miss him not being here to share love and life with me anymore!

                                          (Back in the day! Big hair and darker hair! Ha!)

Pete and I have been blessed with 5 precious grandchildren. I had the youngest one visiting me this past week. He is almost 2 and loves music! He is beginning to learn the song Jesus loves me. He likes to sing it over and over again so I have been singing the words to this song a LOT this past week! J One night after Luke went to bed, I was thinking about the words. We so seldom sing this song as adults…and I realized how important those words are to all of us no matter what age we are! Jesus loves me! That is so powerful! Jesus loves me! Don’t we all need to hear that and think about it every day? Jesus loves me! I know I need to hear that right now in my life! I changed the words to the song a bit. Read (or sing) these words and think about how much He loves you.

Jesus loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Broken hearts to Him belong

I am weak but He is strong!

Yes, Jesus loves me!

Yes, Jesus loves me!

Yes, Jesus loves me!

For the Bible tells me so!

Jesus loves me…in my hurt, in my sorrow, in my pain, in my joy, in spite of my sins and worthlessness…Jesus loves me! I need to dwell in that love…maybe you do, too!

                                                         Jesus loves you and me!