Love is an incredible thing! A few days ago, I was thinking about how much I love my wife and daughters! I was away from them over night and I could not wait to see them, hold them and tell them that I love them! Just thinking about them, what they mean to me and how they make me feel was so overwhelming that I began to cry, not tears of pain, but tears of joy, appreciation and expectation of seeing them again! That got me to thinking about love – my love for them and their love for me. So many times I take it all for granted, but in that moment it was the most important thing on my mind and heart. And then I got to thinking about how much God loves me. He loves me so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die for my sins on the cross. He loves me so much that He allows me moments like the one I just described, moments where I am filled with emotion that words cannot even come close to describing. He loves me so much that He shared with me those that I could love and they would love me back – how awesome!
I know what love is – because I have been given an example. Jesus out of His great love for me – laid down His life! He gave His life, so that I might have life – abundant and everlasting! His love allows me to know, share and experience love and all that comes with it. Because God has been so good to me with His love, I want to be good to others with the love that He has given me. I want to be willing to lay my life down! I want to lay down my attitude, selfishness and opinions, so that I can embrace others and encourage them in their walk with Christ. I want to be willing to always give my time, energy and effort to make a difference in someone elses life, so that God who makes it all possible gets all of the glory.
Michael Joe Harvell 
How appropriate for you to write about love on the date of my 37th wedding anniversary! Your words about your family relationships were touching. They caused me to think of my own father’s love for me as a child though one of the greatest disappointments of my life is that I never got to know my father as an adult. He died when I was in high school. There have been times when I longed for the companionship of an earthly father, but instead I have found comfort in getting to know my Heavenly Father. He has been there for me during times when I have felt overwhelmed, anxious and afraid. He gently takes me by His hand and leads me as a father does his child. Experiencing His special love is an awesome thing.
God is so awesome. He gives us the miracle of children. God gave me a child in 1998. She was the light of my life. We kept her in our bed with us and she never left. She and I were attached at the hip. We went everywhere together and loved each other dearly. At 4 1/2 she got a combination of staph and strep infection that crossed over into her blood stream. She was life flighted to Children’s Hospital in Pgh. She lasted 45 days before she was taken back to the Lord. What a tragedy in our life but it was also the beginning of many many blessings in my life.
My marriage did not survive but this was the beginning of my turn to the Lord. It was in the hospital, many miles from my home, that I met someone who brought me back into the church. Through my daughters death her kidneys helped two men have a better quality of life. My daughter also taught me the love of a child which gave me the desire and courage to empty my savings as a single woman, travel to Russia, and bring back two children to raise knowing that God would take care of us.
This experience also taught me that I have no control and it has to be yielded to the Lord in all things because he knows best. There were times in the hospital with my daughter that it looked like she might pull through before the next infection hit her but her quality of life would have been severely affected if she had lived. At these times you just have to say to God “It is Your Will” and understand that you will deal with whatever the Lord gives you. I knew in this instance that I could not choose. I could not wish that kind of life on her if she lived but I also did not want her to leave – it had to be His choice. It was also this experience that gave me the ability to yield my life to the Lord’s will when I was diagnosed with cancer and to recognize His hand in my miraculous recovery.
God loves us so much that he continually is working to make us better, to grow us in His way, to smooth our rough edges and to bring us to a place where we gladly call Him our Master, Savior, and King. Trials in life are a tool he uses to help us arrive at His feet yielded and ready.
Your entry brings tears to my eyes! How awesome is God’s love! I don’t know the love of an earthly father. And sometimes I ask, “Why?” And then, I think of all of the men I know who are awesome daddy’s to their girls, Mike, Darryl, MJ, Mark, Lee, all examples to me of treating their daughters as “God’s daughters”. I just can’t help but smile when I watch them. I can honestly say that,at times, I long for that kind of relationship with my earthly father. That’s just the time when God reminds me that I am His daughter. When I call on him, he is always there with the answer. There are times when I don’t hear him because I’m too busy, rushing around in my own power, trying to fix it myself…but when I am still in the quiet of the morning with His word, before anyone else is awake and it’s just me and Him, I hear him and and feel his presence, and I truly sing from my heart to him. So, it is my great joy to know the love of and be thedaughter of the King…my Daddy.
You have touched my heart in so many ways, daily. I am so lucky that I am loved by my husband and family. Never take love for granted. NWBC has changed my life. The love that is felt in that church is overwhelming. I can never get through a service without cring. What amazes me is the love I feel from God. For a very long time I was growing away from God, and now I am growing daily in my spirit and my love for God. What an awesome feeling. Thank you MJ for being who God has lead you to be. I believe that he lead our family to the NWBC family!!!