Mush.

Forewarning: This is going to be a mushy, gushy post. SO for those of you out there who don't like love or relationships or anything of the sort, you probably don't want to read this. (I really hope you do it anyways though!)

Today, I am thankful for LOVE. I'm not talking about the kind you see on T.V. or middle school "puppy love" or even "The Notebook" kind of love. I'm talking about sacrificial, selfless, unending, unconditional love. The kind that you can only feel and truly cherish when you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Some of you may think you can have that love without Jesus, but I'm here to tell you, from first-hand experience, it's impossible without Him. You can't even understand the definition of love until you understand who God is and what he has done for you. Sending his one, true son to die on a horrible death on a cross in order for us to have a shot at a relationship with Him... THAT'S love. 

You have to start there to understand what love is and you have to be content and fulfilled by that love in order to love another person. Trust me, I learned that the hard way. I tried everything I could to find love. You know that song that says, "Looking for love in all the wrong places"? Well, that was me. And I bet, if you were real honest with yourself, you could say you've been there too. I looked for love in friends, in boys, in "activities", in parties...you name it, I probably tried to find "love" in it. You see, the problem was that I didn't know what love really was. So when I felt those tingly feelings and "happiness", I'd think I found what I was looking for and then get crushed when it fell apart. But remember the definition of love I said at the beginning of the post? Love is UNENDING. 

So fast forward a few years, I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. I finally discovered what love really was! I thought, now, surely I can "fall in love" with someone since I know what it is. The problem was that I wasn't content and fulfilled by God's love. I hadn't let it overwhelm me. It wasn't until I relished in God's love for me and became content in who he made me to be that I found love. People say that you'll find love when you're not looking for it...and I hate to say it but they're right. 

I have found the man of my dreams. The most incredible, kind, loving, generous, Godly man I could ever ask for. But, he doesn't fulfill me. And he doesn't try to. We both know that only God can do that. When we seek our fulfillment in each other, we fall apart. Our love isn't the glue that holds us together, God's love is. 

So today, I am thankful for God's love. I am thankful that it has led me to the man he created for me to be with. But most of all, I am thankful that God's love is the only love that could ever fulfill me and restore me back to life. 

1 John 4: 9-10, 16, 19
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loves us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. We love because he first loved us.