To love as he loves us….

I would like to stretch out of the norm for a minute of usually useless information that I am know for sharing to share something that touched my heart this morning. I call it a good reminder of the meaning of love.

 On my way to work a side job this morning I got stopped by a red-light.  My first thought was dang, I could have made it! As i abruptly stopped my car before the line, I slowly looked up at the light.  It was one of those times that for the first few seconds after you stop,  you realize how far under the light you are and have to lean forward just to see the light.  Well I had to do just that.  As I mumbled in my head about my decision of stopping, something caught my eye and my heart.

I was not far from an low income government subsidized apartment community that some would call run down, dirty, old, ugly and probably more derogatory words.  Truth be known, I have probably thought those same thoughts before having to remind myself to not be judgmental.  As these thoughts ran through my head of the times that I had been in that apartment community, and the bad things I had seen with my own eyes, Spiderman got my attention.  

This Spiderman was on the back of a new, clean backpack of a little boy being carried by his mother walking.  She had him all bundled up with a jacket and a toboggan, with gloves and holding him tight against her chest.  This is a congested area of work commuters, that probably are not paying attention to what is going on around them…just as I was, until Spiderman captured my heart.

As I sat there and waited, I looked over to the car beside of me.  This mother still carrying the love of her life was now in front of this car as the light turned green.  I saw the look in the drivers eye .. it was as if I could hear what he was saying in his mind.  Almost like a thought bubble over his head…..Hurry up woman! Gosh I am late! This Starbucks coffee is horrible this morning! Dang i wish this woman would hurry!… As I looked back away from the driver, The loving mother holding her proud Spiderman was now almost in front of my car.  She made eye contact with me and knew she was in the intersection at a bad time with the light turning.  I motioned her to pass in front of my car without hesitation.  At this point, my heart was filling with enough love to get out and stop the whole intersection myself.  The look she gave back was a thank you.  With heartache in her eye from the daily stresses of life, I thought to myself .. Who are you? What is your story? What are you doing?

She passed my car and made it to the corner, where I saw her stand under the KAT bus pick up sign.  That is when I realized what she was doing.  I began to pull through the intersection and looked through my rear view mirror.  She was still holding him, but he had turned his head to look back at the intersection.  The innocence in his face screamed at me.  It Screamed, this is my mommy.  She takes care of me.  She holds me close when it is cold and puts on extra clothes along with my gloves to keep my hands warm.  She makes sure I put on my Spiderman backpack for daycare and I know she loves me.  

I continued to think.  The mother was dressed as if she was working, and her son was dressed as if for daycare, no old enough for school.  Emotions flooded my heart with how this little boy doesn’t know struggles or pain that the woman holding him is going through.  The pain having to ride a bus to her work, and not having a car.  He doesn’t understand why he has to get up a little earlier than other kids, so they can make the nearly half mile walk from his apartments to get on that bus.  At this point, He doesn’t know that there is any difference in his run down playground, than the playground at McDonalds. All he knows is that he is loved.  He has friends that he loves to play with, He has a soft pillow for bed time and he has a mother who bought him an awesome Spiderman Backpack. Love, that is what he knows.

I said a quick prayer for that mother.  A prayer for strength and for God to show her that she is doing great.  That life throws curve balls, and from the love I saw in 45 seconds, she is doing everything right.  

It reminded me of Gods love for his children.  For all of us.  She held him tight, she was keeping him warm, and she was caring for all his needs to the best of her ability.  Just as God Loves us, holds us and is with us regardless of where we live, or what we do.

It was a humble reminder that our God is an awesome God.

John 13:34-35

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

Matt Black vs Your Feelings

“We probably worry ourselves more over things that are completly out of our control, than things that we can control”

Life can be difficult … Let me rephrase that… life is difficult. I feel like sometimes we don’t get on our knees enough and pray for GOD to help us with our problems and also when we dont have problems. It is easy to go to him when times are bad, and pray for help and then forget to thank him when things are Good. It should be easier since you can’t spell Good without a g, an o and a d, but it is not. We are human and we don’t think about bad things until we have to. We want to keep our feelings boxed up inside without letting them out.

Which brings me to the word Feelings. What are feelings? What do they effect? What can we o about them? How do we ontrol them?

When i started reasearching behavior patterns and trying to understand what causes people to become negative that it becomes their strongest personal asset, I would see the word over and over again…. attitude. Negative attitude, bad attitude, everything came back to the word attitude. So it was not surprising when I saw that in its own definition of the word ‘feelings’ came the word attitude.

Dictionary.com – Feelings – an emotion or emotional perception or attitude

Your feelings in your heart directly affect your attitude, and your attitude shows in your interaction with others. I feel like approaching a positive state, and being a positive person, you have to think and give yourself good feelings. On the way to work this morning, I was already thinking about a work incident I had received overnight that I was going to have to call about and it hit me. Wow! It is a beautiful day! The sun was shining through my windows warming the car just enough, the birds were chirping in the back ground, and a great song was on the radio. I sat there at the red light and took 30 seconds to thank God for life’s little things and not get caught up in the moment of everything else. It made me feel good. I thought about how if felt and what would make this day even better.

I challenge you to take the time out today and concentrate on your feelings. If something is bothering you, then address it. Think about it and let it go. If it is something good, then hold onto it! If you are not really feeling anything, then concentrate on lifes little joys we over look everday! The beauty of trees blowing in the wind, the joy of others laughing, birds chirping like they are singing a song. Its not hard to find good things, sometimes you just have to look around you! You will see it makes you more positive person and I promise it will change others around you!

Have a great day everyone and remember…your feelings go hand in hand with your attitude and your attitude shows in your demeanour.

Have good thoughts, stay positive!

Black’s Out…