LOVE

Well, my two little boys are officially 8 months old and 3 and a half.  I look at them and wonder how did we get here so fast.  Where did the time go?  Just yesterday Brody was running around in footsie pj's with the vocab of mama, dada, and nono.  Now he is telling me Bible stories and singing full songs.  And my little Gage was just in preemie clothes and sleeping all day.  Now he's 8 months old, almost outgrown his 9 month clothes and is larger than Brody was at this time.  I have a feeling my preemie is going to be bigger than his big brother.  When I look at these two precious faces, my heart overflows with one emotion: LOVE.
Being a parent to these two boys has taught me more about love than anything else.  I now understand what my parents felt during little accomplishments in my life.  You just have so much love and feeling towards these extensions of your heart that it's hard to contain.  And as angry or as crazy as they make you at times, it's the unconditional love that always comes back. 
"Love covers a multitude of sins."  I used to struggle seeing parents enable their children, and it's still frustrating to a degree.  Kids that use their parents for money, to get ahead in life, to get more drugs.  I thought, "don't they see what's going on?  how can they keep doing this?"  But I cannot judge their illogic.  Because love truly does constantly keep us forgiving one another, accepting one another, and forgetting the hurts that have been caused.  We choose to love.  Sometimes we do the hard things in love too.  But all in all, we must choose to love.  That's what Christ did for us.  When I think of all the things I have done wrong in this life, I can feel overwhelmed and broken down.  But when I switch my focus over to the fact that Jesus laid down his life for me despite all that junk.  That's love.  I'm so thankful he chose to forgive me for it all.  And now I walk in love.  I pray I can be an outpouring of his love toward others. 
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ....And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 
I Corinthians 13