Love, Love, Love

An Everyday Stewardship Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter 2016

I found this list online of 101 Ways to Show You Love Somebody. It was produced as a project in secondary schools somewhere in the United Kingdom, and was apparently inspired by a similar list and project in Iowa. The ideas have to do with romantic love, but most could be showing anyone close to you that you love them. Some ideas involve food (#33 Bake a cake,) some ideas strike me as a little much (#44 Cut each other’s toenails,) and some are simple yet profound (#51 Trust one another.) But just to read through the list of all 101 ideas makes you realize that not only are there so many ways to show someone love, we sometimes miss many fundamental ways of doing so.

We as humans too often turn love into sometime extraordinary and larger than life, when the most extraordinary thing about love is that is so very ordinary. Love permeates the lives of those who choose to devote themselves to it. It doesn’t have to be about the big events. It is about the smaller everyday happenings, like #11 on the list, which is “spend time together.” Anyone can buy a big present or make a big dinner, but only a true lover sees opportunities for love in the mundane and ordinary.

Jesus said, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” What are you doing to show your love for Jesus? How do you keep His word? The answer lies in what you do every day, not just on a Sunday or Holy Day. Trusting in Him and just spending time with Him are ideas that made the list. Simple but more profound and life changing than most realize.

Of course you want the list! Enjoy and begin actively loving others and God in so many ways TODAY!   http://www.priory.com/paeds/101%20ways.htm