HOPE.

Maggie wrote this in my journal yesterday during church. What a beautiful reminder as we start the new year.

Help others in every way possible.

Help ourselves by growing closer to Christ.

And love on PURPOSE.

On purpose. Intentional. It’s the only way.

We are human, and we are hard to love. We mess up. We get on each other’s nerves. We rub people the wrong way. We come from different walks of life. Act different. Have different beliefs. It’s easy to just write people off.

We are human, and we need love. Even when we mess up. Even when we spout off rude words before thinking. Even when we let people down – way down. Even when we are different. We need the love of Christ.

I want to be intentional about loving people the way Jesus did. The easy to love. The hard to love – people who think I’m hard to love. People who think differently. Just people.

True love isn’t easy. As we grow older we tend to become jaded from the storms of life. That’s why in Matthew 18:3 Jesus said we need to become like little children – childlike faith & childlike hearts. Sweet Maggie. I can turn in my journal to her acrostic as a reminder to love like Jesus – on purpose. Every single day. Every single person.

He gives us HOPE. He gives us strength.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34 (NIV)