Chapter 2, Page 28, Book 19

All endings are a chance to rest, to breathe, to reflect on the conclusion of a journey in preparation for a new one.

Author Unknown

February 28th - the end of the month

February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March.

J.R. Stockton

So ends my month of messages about love.  Love frees us, love never fails, forgiveness is love. There is always time for love, love has power.  Love is in the small things.  Love grows. Love is to be celebrated.  Love is life .

There are so many different facets of love, I’m sure I probably missed a few.  The month of March which starts tomorrow will be all about Spring, new birth, new beginnings, and Lent which is the six week period leading up to Easter.

I’m looking forward to Spring after a long winter.  It’s seems as if I have hibernated long enough.  The days are growing longer and like the buds that are beginning to form on the trees, I too will grow and bloom.  

Even though March brings with it the possibility of more snow, the snows don’t last like they did in January and February.  March is the month of St. Patrick’s Day and daffodils.  Winter transitions into Spring. Birds and flowers make a return after months of cold weather.  

Everything ends. But there are always new beginnings.

Ralph Bellamy

Chapter 2, Page 27, Book 19

When the world says, Give up

Hope whispers, Try it one more time.

Author Unknown

February 27th- Love hopes all things

Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

Stephen King

To hope all things means that we never considered another to be a lost cause.  It means that we never give up on each other.  Love fosters hope.  

Without hope we cannot truly love because we would not have the power to endure what love demands.  Part of showing love is hoping and part of hoping is seeing the potential of others.  Hope always points to a brighter day ahead  Love is the lifeline that the hurting can hold onto.  As long there is love there will always be hope.

Without hope we struggle to hold on when things get hards.  We give up before we should. Hope can create life into a situation you can’t see your way out of.  Hope gives wings to our dreams.

Hope is what keeps us going in life.  Keep hope alive when our friends are not friendly.  When neighbors are not neighborly.  We have to learn to keep hope alive when our loved ones are not loving or lovable   

Hope is what keeps us keeping on…

You’ve gotta have hope.  Without hope life is meaningless.  Without hope life is meaning less and less.

Author Unknown

Chapter 2, Page 26, Book 19

The spirit of envy can destroy;

it can never build.

Margaret Thatcher

February 26th- love does not envy

Envy is a waste of time.

Author Unknown

When we love, there is no room for envy.  Love does not seek to benefit itself and it is content with what it has, because its focus is on meeting the needs of others.

To envy is to be dissatisfied with who we are.  We become ungrateful and discontent.  Envy and jealously are ugly.  Being envious can destroy relationships.

Don’t waste your time on envy.  Love your life and be happy.  You already have all you need !  There are far more importuning things to spend time and energy on than envy.  Don’t waste your life  comparing it to others.  Once you start down that road you’ll never find an end. No good ever comes from it. Start living your own life instead.

Today is the only day we have for sure, so let's make it a good one!

You cannot be envious and happy at the same time.

Frank Tyger

Chapter 2, Page 25, Book 19

Who so loves

Believes the impossible.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

February 25th- love believes all things

God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.

Billie Holiday

To believe all things means that we give others the benefit of the doubt, it means we expect the best.  It means we are able to over look the offenses and failures of others.  It means we believe that we can trust one another.

We need to have faith that others will come through when we need  them. To trust that others have our best purposes in mind.  Those that love will always believe in the other person.  What ever the situations , love is ready to trust.  

It’s in the process of trusting and having confidence in them that we also encourage them to be the best they can be. A heart that is doubting and pessimistically  assuming the worst, will be unable to appreciate the beauty and blessings of love.

Love believes all things instead of choosing to think the worst about a person.  We don’t know for sure what their motivations are or if the person will follow though on what they say, but we can think the best unless it is clear and there is evidence to the contrary.  It gives the benefit of the doubt.  

Remember: if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, because love believes the best, and sees the best in others.

Integrate what you believe into ever single area of your life.  Take you heart to work and ask the most and best of everybody else.

Meryl Streep

Chapter 2, Page 24, Book 19

Each day come bearing its gifts.  Untie the ribbons

Ann Ruth Schabaker

February 24th - love bears all things

If we have our own ’why’ of life, we can bear almost any ‘how’.

Friedrich W. Nietzsche

Yes, indeed Love is a gift that helps us bear the unbearable.   Love bears all things is an expression of the enduring love that prevails when all else,  all words, all memory all physical function fails. Love bears the pressures, faces the trials and doesn’t give up. One thing that makes life bearable is having love and friendship in our life.

Like  a roof keeps out rain or walls protect from the wind, love is a shelter, a guard or defense, love bears all manner of danger from within and without.

Life at times does bring things hard to bear, but love helps us to never give up.  To bear up under the pressures of life.

For small creatures such as we are, the vastness is bearable only through love.

Carl Sagan

Chapter 2, Page 23, Book 19

An enemy is someone that God puts in our path that is most in need of our love, not retaliation or retribution or harm or insult.

John Carmody

February 23rd - love your enemy

To get rid of an enemy, one must love him.

Leo Tolstoy

One of the hardest ways to love is loving our enemies.  In my experience the easiest way to love someone I consider an enemy is to pray for them. 

If an enemy treats you badly, there is no reason to act the same way.  We should never let someone steal the love we have in our hearts.  I don’t want to be an enemy so I will not act like one.

I don’t have to support their actions but I have to love them and pray for them.  

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend..

Abraham Lincoln

Loving your enemy doesn’t mean you excuse their actions.  It means you forgive them for what they’ve done.  Living with prayer and forgiveness in our hearts, is to repay injury with blessing and hate with love.

Being unforgiving and holding grudges keeps our anger alive and squelches that love we are called to offer.  Lack of forgiveness keeps us trapped in a cycle of revenge.  Prayer turns the whole situation over to the good Lord, who certainly knows what He is doing.

It’s not easy but at the same time it is not impossible, for nothing is impossible with God.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Chapter 2, Page 22, Book 19

Every act of love is a work of peace no matter how small.

Mother Teresa

February 22nd - The way to peace is love

Let us love the world to peace.

Eileen Elias Freeman

To promote love, peace and happiness requires that we share them with others. Spreading love can mean a variety of things, It could mean telling telling our friends and family that we love them or we could  volunteer and help someone in need.

Peace begins with me. Feeling love for myself and others creates a sense of peace.  Peace is found first within ourselves and then like a ripple effect spreads to others.  Everything we do has an impact on someone.  It starts with each of us in our homes, spreads to our family and friends, then to communities.  

Because peace begins with the love we give,  we need to be careful with what we do and say. Everything we do matters.

Choose love and peace will follow.

Choose peace and love will follow.

Mary Helen Doyle

Chapter 2, Page 21, Book 19

I have learned that to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

Andy Rooney

February 21st- facts to not cease to exist because they are ignored

If you get all the facts, your judgment may be right; if you don’t get the facts, it can’t be right.

Bernard M. Baruch

Love is one of the most important and yet most misunderstood emotions so I found some facts about love that cannot be ignored.

Love is different than passion or lust.

Building lasting relationships takes work.

We can increase our capacity to love.

If we focus on love, we can enhance it

Love is not a fixed quantity.

Love is contagious

Love includes letting go

Love has no room for jealousy

Love is the absence of fear

Love makes you feel good, not bad.

Remember, love is happiness, appreciation and feeling good.  Anything other than that is not love.  If we all loved one another as ourselves, the world would be a better place.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

John Adams

Chapter 2, Page 20, Book 19

Let everything we do and say be an expression of the beauty in our heart, always based on love.

Don Miquel Ruiz

February 20th - -Gratitude is one of the greatest ways we can show love.  

Saying thank you, creates love,

Daphne Rose Kingma

Thankfulness in whatever form, is essentially a way to love someone else.  Expressing our gratitude is a way of showing love.  As important as it is to feel gratitude, it’s important to express gratitude.  When we forget to show gratitude is is essentially forgetting to show love.  

We often forget to tell those we love, just how much they mean to us.  Forgetting to be grateful is forgetting to love.  Love is a precious thing and I want to make every effort to show my gratefulness. When we are grateful for another person we are much more likely to love them.

Saying thank you is such a simple thing, but I want those I love to know I’m grateful for whatever they have done for me.  Being grateful and expressing our love for someone through gratitude is easy, but it can get lost in the mix of life.  

When we feel gratitude  we feel love, joy, appreciation and peace.  Gratefulness is the essence of love and love is essential to gratitude.  Gratitude will keep us together

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Melody Beattie

Chapter 2, Page 19, 2019

Love just seems to make life not just livable, but a gallant, gallant event.

Toni Morrison

February 19th - bring love to every facet of your life.

Nothing should be prized more highly than the value of each day.

John van Goethe

There is so much in life to love, that love should be celebrated every day we live.  Love is thoughtfulness, Love is priceless.  Love is giving our all.  

Love where you are, love where you come from, love the things you do, love those around you.  Love yourself, love life and never let anyone stop it.

Seize every chance you get to celebrate love. Don’t let anything in this world stand in the way of love.  There is always time to love.  Love has no beginning or ending. Love is in the every day.  Love is eternal. 

What ever you do, do it in the name of love. Love doesn’t need ribbons and bows.  It requires no assembly or added accessory.  Love is one size fits all.  Regardless of ones age, station in life, or circumstance, love is aways welcomed , appreciated , cherished and treasured and should be celebrated.

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you done things in the spirit of Love. 

Henry Drummond

Chapter 2, Page 18, Book 19

God Bless America!  Land that I love…

Irving Berlin

February 18 - for the love of country

And I’m proud to be an American

Where at least I know I’m free

And I won’t forget the men who died

Who gave that right to me

And I’d gladly stand up next to you

And defend Her still today

‘Cause there ain’t no doubt

I love this land

God Bless the USA!

Lee Greenwood

Since today is Presidents Day I thought it appropriate to write about love of country.  I am proud to be an American.  My heart beats red white and blue. 

I grew up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every morning during my school days which instilled a great love of this land.  I learned that divided we fall, united we stand.

Our U.S. Nation Anthem by Francis Scott Keys says it well.

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight

O’er the rampagers we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air.

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say does that star spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Love of country is call patriotism.  It is good to love your country because that is where you live. This song reminds me of the sacrifices of those who fought for our freedom of speech, religion and worship. I’m proud to say I’m a part of such a nation.  

Patriotism is love of country. But you can’t love you country with loving your countrymen and countrywomen.  We don’t always have to agree, but we must empower each other, we must find the common ground, we must build bridges across our differences to pursue the common good.

Cory Booker

Chapter 2, Page 17, Book 19

Be faithful to your love and you will be recompensed beyond measure.

Albert Schweizer

February 17 - faithfulness

Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others.

Erich Fromm

The quality of being faithful means loyal, full of faith or trust. Firmly and resolutely staying with a person , group, cause, belief or idea without waver, despite the circumstances, Faithful love endures for ever. 

We live in a culture where faithfulness is hard to find. Too many don’t want to work, they don’t want to be loyal or faithful.  Everybody wants, but not many are faithful or willing to pay the price for what they want. If they don’t like it here, they go there.  Many companies are struggling to recruit faithful loyal people.  

Faithfulness is the heart, that is where you find loyalty.  Faithful in little things is the indication you will be faithful in the larger things. Faithful to our jobs, to our kids, or to our spouses.

Faithfulness will give you a peace beyond understanding, chronic happiness, an uncontrollable sense of pride, strong confidence, a feeling of security and a real connection with others. 

Be faithful in small things because it is in them your strength lies.

Mother Teresa

Chapter 2, Page 16, Book 19

Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable. 

David Augsberger

February 16th - talk less, listen more

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a king word, a listening ear, a compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Leo Buscaglia

It is often hard to listen and resist the temptation to give advice.  But just listening is often the best thing we can do to show our love for others. Being a good listener is often more important than speaking.  Truth is the better you listen, the better people will listen to you.

When you listen, just listen and don’t interrupt. Sometimes that is all that is needed for someone to be able to vent for a few minutes and figure things out for themselves.  Everyone needs to let off a little steam now and then and people love a good listener.  

The first duty of love is to listen.

Paul Tillich

Listening is a great way to show others that they matter to us.  When we give them our full attention, we make it clear to the other person that we care. The best thing we can do is be there for them when they want to talk.

Listening leads to a better understanding of others.  Because what effects the people we care about, often effects us too.  

God gave us mouths that close and ears that don’t, that must tell us something.

Anonymous

Chapter 2, Page 15, Book 19

You must remember to love people and use things,

Rather than to love things and use people

Fulton J. Sheen

February 15th -people matter to me

A good motto is: Use friendliness but do not use your friends.

Frank Crane

People were created to be loved.  Things were created to be used.  Sad but true the world is full of things that are being loved and people that are being used.  There is an unhealthy inclination in our world to remove people from our lives who no longer serve us.

Our closets may be full, but our hearts are empty.  Many people put countless value on possessions, not people. Things begin to go wrong  when things are loved and people are not.

I’ve had it happen, maybe you have had it happen to you too,  there have been people in my life that were only friends as I long as I served their purpose.  When I no longer did what they wanted, or gave them what they needed,  they dropped me as a friend.  What I’d thought of as a person to love, was not a true friend at all.

As far as I’m concerned people will always matter to me more than the things I have.  

Who doesn’t want to know that we notice them and value them? And who might respond to us better when they feel that they matter?  It cannot be overstated - it matters… that people matter.

Steve Goodier

Chapter 2, Page 14, 2019

A Valentine Prayer

I said a Valentine prayer

 for you and asked the Lord

above to fill your heart

and bless your soul with

the precious gift of love.

I asked Him for sincere love

The kind that’s meant to stay

Just like the generous love

You give to those

you touch each day

I prayed for love from 

family and every 

cherished friend. Then I

asked the Lord to give you

His love that knows no end.

February 14th - Happy Valentines Day

Valentines Day is the highlight of February, the month of Love. It’s a day to truly appreciate the love that it is all around us. But it doesn’t have to be the only day you show your love for family, friends and for yourself. 

Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends time and space.

Author Unknown

Chapter 2, Page 13, Book 19

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image.

Thomas Merton

February 13th - we are what we are

Love me for who I am, not for who you want me to be.

Author Unknown

It took some time, but I’ve learned that you cannot change people, you can only love them.  We have to love them for who they are, not who we want them to be.  

Changing others is beyond our ability.  We cannot change others any more than others can change us.  We are the only ones that can change ourselves, People will change when they decide to change.  We cannot do it for them.

We all have at least one or two people in our lives that we’d like to fix, that we wish we could improve and help.  But wanting them to be different is not within our reach. It’s not our decision to make.

 Most people don’t want anyone else telling them how to live. We have to love then for who they are.  Same goes for each of us we shouldn’t have to change in order for someone to love us. 

Don’t change so people will like you.  Be yourself and the right people will love the real you. 

Author Unknown