Faith-filled Friday: Love

Hello Crushers,

I don't know how many of you follow along with a devotion book or have one e-mailed to you, but Steve and I have a few devotion books at our house that we bought and received as gifts. On top of that, a small group of friends and I have a Facebook group where we comment on an e-mail devotion that we all subscribe to - Proverbs 31 Ministries. When looking for a passage for today's post, I looked in "The One Year Uncommon Life: Daily Challenge" written by Tony Dungy and Nathan Whitaker.

If you don't know him, Tony Dungy is a retired championship winning NFL coach, a football analyst, author, husband, father, etc. He's an all-around great guy and one that is not afraid to show his faith. I bought this book for Steve for our first Christmas thinking that he'd especially love the football connection, and now it's one of my favorite devotion books. We don't read one every day, and since there are 365 devotions, even if we read this every year, we'd still be OK!

Anyway, I looked up the passage for today, and it was 1 Corinthians 16:13:

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.

Um, how perfect is that verse to connect March Madness to our faith?! Stand firm! Be courageous! Go! Fight! Win! Works, right?

And then I looked up the next verse:

Do everything in love.

I don't think that being on guard, standing firm, being courageous or strong could happen without knowing how much God loves me, my family, and my friends. My actions and words certainly wouldn't be much without loving motivation.

The friends I mentioned earlier are getting together in a little over a week for our 10th anniversary girls weekend. Each of us has had some big changes this year having babies, having miscarriages, new jobs, old jobs, husbands facing new jobs, saying good bye to loved ones, and everything in between. It's been a roller coaster to say the least. Fortunately, we all can reach out to each other in love, surround each other with love, and remind each other of God's love and loving plan for our lives.

Next weekend when we all get together, one friend suggested that we each bring a Bible passage to share. Normally, I'd bring up my confirmation verse (you'll be singing it on Easter - "I know that my Redeemer lives!"), but I think I might bring these verses from 1 Corinthians. I should carry them around with me every day. Won't you?