jOHN 5:42

"bUT i KNOW YOU, THAT YE HAVE NOT THE LOVE OF gOD IN YOU."




For Family Home Evening this past Monday night I referred to a couple of stories from the Church News about losing yourself in service of others, and how the Peace of Service can bind the broken heart. Then I read a short story from the Readers Digest about a little girl at Christmas time who gave all she had in her piggy bank to help another family who would otherwise have gone without Christmas. Her small donation of 3 dollars and some change turned into 500 dollars from others; donations inspired by one small child giving all she had...sufficient to help a single mother of an infant, a mother who was also raising her 12 year old brother.

From three dollars turned $500, this family was blessed to have a nice Christmas and to enjoy the food and essentials they needed for a pleasant Holiday.

A 7 year old girls three dollars and some change CHANGED me.

I felt inspired, ...I felt selfish, ...I felt the need to really look at myself from the inside out.

That is what I have been doing the past couple weeks.
Looking at myself from the inside out.

The Church News articles are amazing and inspiring as well...a woman who lost her husband of four years in the 9-11 terrorist attacks, has joined with other LDS people on a humanitarian mission to assist the survivors of the devastating January 12th earthquake in Haiti. She knew well the meaning of the words in the poem,

"Stript, wounded,
...I found him by the highway side.
I roused his pulse,
brought back his breath.
...He was healed.

I had myself a wound concealed,
But from that hour forgot the smart,
And peace bound up my broken heart."
[LDS Church News, we Jan 30, 2010, 7]

She is quoted saying: "When you're of service, you lose yourself, ...all of the sudden, your trials don't seem nearly as big because everybody else is going through something. It puts it in perspective, and it's very, very healing."

...She's allowed the peace of
humanitarian
service
to bind up her broken heart.

Well, moving on back to Family Home Evening and my reflection...Brian had the scripture and he opened the Bible to John 5:42,

"But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you."

He asked the kids what they thought that meant.


Gavin stated that he felt that maybe you had a selfishness that snuffed out the Love of God, and that we don't sometimes realize how our being so caught up in our own needs, our thoughts, and our human desire makes us unable to really know that we were created to do something bigger, ...like in serving others, and in sharing the love of God that is within us all but that is of no value unless shared with others through our behaviors. [loosely quoted]


Sam said that it says "I know you", meaning that God knows us and he knows when we haven't accepted his love.


Clarissa thought that maybe it is telling us that we need to understand that he knows us and he knows when we don't accept our responsibility to do things that invite the love of God to be in us.


Jeremy responded that it meant you didn't know that God Loves You.


I came away blown away....I heard my own sorrow in each of their answers:

I am selfish. I have a lot of opportunities to serve others and I don't. I act busy, or justify that I have a lot going on, or that I already do enough. I serve my own needs first; sometimes in the service of my family and I think that is enough. I don't recognize the light and love that is within me and that I have been created to do something much bigger, much greater than I am giving myself credit to do.

I don't accept that God loves me. I say that I am a Child of God, a Daughter of the Divine, I say that I know he loves me....but I don't really accept it. As I pick myself apart each day...

I think that He KNOWS ME too well,
enough that how could He REALLY love ME???

Clarissa said it like it is...need I say more?

And Jeremy, sweetness and pure faith. "You don't KNOW that God LOVES you!"



SERIOUSLY:
YOU DON"T KNOW...THAT GOD LOVES YOU?????



Today I continued to ponder as I read from another Church News.
This one week ending December 26, 2009:

"Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion,
Christ is not going to turn his back on us now."

"...HE LIVES and HE LOVES US...

Gaining this knowledge is ultimately the quest of all God's children on the earth. If you cannot remember believing in God, or if you have ceased to believe, or if you believe but without real conviction, I invite you to seek a testimony of God now.

Do not be afraid of ridicule. The strength and peace that come from knowing God and having the comforting companionship of His Spirit will make your efforts eternally worthwhile."

...and, "You may already know, deep in your soul, that God lives. You may not know all about Him yet and do not understand all His ways, but the light of belief is within you, waiting to be awakened and intensified by the Spirit of God and the Light of Christ, which you are born with."


"May I be bold enough to suggest that it is impossible for anyone who really knows God to doubt his willingness to receive us with open arms in a divine embrace if we will but 'come unto Him.'

There certainly can be and will be plenty of external difficulties in life; nevertheless, the soul that comes unto Christ dwells within a personal fortress, a veritable palace of perfect peace..."

[Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Envisioning Him]

i'm pondering....