Abundant (Love)

Being that we're in the month of love... (never mind that I'm a newlywed and all... *wink, wink*) the topic of love is high on the radar.

We all know the universal language of love is hearts. I've never been one that has really gotten overly excited at the site of hearts... heart shaped jewelry, heart shaped trinkets, heart shaped this, and heart shaped that. Yea- it just never really tugged at my heart strings. Actually, in all honesty all that lovey dovey stuff created more irritation in me rather than affection. I guess because I'm not one to follow the crowd and would rather show love and affection in a more personal way than how everyone else does it. It's easy to show love with a heart, but to really get to know someone and discover what speaks to their heart takes a little more effort.

That is... until I had a friend that would always talk about seeing these hearts and how she saw them as kisses from the Lord. Hmmmmm... now that got my attention. Hearts as kisses from above. When she would talk about kisses He'd sent her in the form of a heart shaped rock, a heart shaped cloud, a heart shaped shell, a heart shaped leaf, a heart shaped oil stain on the concrete (you get the idea) I decided I wanted some of that! I thought; if He'll send her kisses in the form of hearts surely He'll send me kisses in the form of hearts too. And so the search began. I started keeping my eye out for hearts and guess what?!?! Yep... I started getting hearts too! In every way you can imagine. Sometimes I didn't have to look very hard for them. And sometimes I did. This has been going on for years now.

I've been in a season where I hadn't been getting many hearts lately. So I had a conversation and it went kinda like this:

Me: Lord, I haven't been getting many hearts from you lately. I'd really like to see some hearts here soon.
Him: OK. Just ask Me for them.
Me: Fine. I will. I'd like to get a heart from you everyday for the next 30 days!
My Inner Thoughts: Oh, dear! I just asked for a heart every day for the next 30 days. That's a lot of hearts. I better start small and just ask for a heart every day for a week. Then we can reevaluate and extend it if things are going well.
Him: (Since He was listening in on my thoughts...) Really? You don't think I can send you a heart every day for 30 days? Who do you think I am?
Me: Yea- you're right. You're God. You can send a heart every day for 30 days. Let's start tomorrow! I'm looking!  

That was 15 days ago. And guess what? Yep... I haven't only gotten a heart every single day, but I've gotten multiple hearts each day. And a lot of the times, it's many hearts together at once. So we've been talking about His abundant affection and desire to provide. We're also talking about how love can still exist even when you don't see the hearts and how love is not based on how you feel. Ironic we're having this conversation when I'm a newlywed? Probably not... ;) We've got lots to talk about and I'm still on my 30 day heart challenge.

Back to the universal language of love... we also have a unique language of love. Some of you married folk may be familiar with the book, The Five Love Languages and you know what I'm talking about. You know how something may mean a lot to you, but it doesn't necessarily mean the same thing to your spouse? Well... He knows that love language too! I'm not just on the lookout for hearts. I have my unique little thing that He knows speaks just to me.

In fact, one of my favorite wedding pics captures it perfectly.

Stay tuned and I'll post it soon.

In the meantime... Feel the love. Share the love.
Let His abundant love consume you!

More later.