Friday, February 14, 2020

FMF: Experience

It's Valentine's Day, and I'm thinking about my dad. When I was 16, he gave me a necklace on Valentine's Day. It was the most meaningful gift I had ever received up to that point. Now that I'm older, and he has passed away, I think about him a lot.

Sometimes my memories are deceptive. I don't remember my dad saying "I love you" much. In fact, the first time I remember him saying it was on my wedding day. I'm sure he said it before then, but I don't remember it. Memories like this are painful.

However, my experience tells me my dad loved me quite a bit. When believers talk about Biblical love, they often go to one passage: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NIV)

Using this passage as a yardstick, my dad was quite loving. Dad was kind; he was always doing things for me. Dad didn't boast; I don't remember him ever bragging about anything he had done. Dad was not self-seeking; he worked long hours to provide for his family. Dad was not easily angered; when he was angry he'd say "for the love of mud" and so it was hard to believe he was really that angry. On and on it goes.

So if you are like me, and you are struggling today, take some time to embrace your experiences. You may find some love that was hidden away.




This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.

1 comment:

  1. This is a lovely post, but the heading is absolutely haunting, and it inspired a sonnet. I hope that you like it.

    All the things I thought before
    have faded into formless grey;
    I had hoped for so much more
    but the big top's gone away,
    and left me standing in the sward,
    'midst trampled shadows on the grass
    where only now the curlews guard
    the echoes of a glorious past.
    But now's no time for melancholy,
    though the circus was my life;
    to let up now would be pure folly
    in the face of cancer's bloody knife,
    and as night must give way to dawn,
    the show, my friend, will still go on.

    #1 spot at FMF this week.

    https://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2020/02/your-dying-spouse-731-hallmarks-hidden.html

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