My Christmas Letter to You, Whether You Celebrate Christmas or Not

Dear and Precious One,

God loves you with a deep and everlasting love. His is the only perfect love you will experience here on earth. All other loves, as beautiful as they can be, are only pale imitations of His true and abiding Love. He resides in your heart, caring for each precious beat of it, whispering to the inmost part of you His words of True Love.

Like all good loves, He listens, too. He waits for your word, longs to hear you utter the smallest of prayers so that He can hear your desire for Him, for change, for perfection. He wants you to love Him in return. He will never force Himself upon you. He will wait for you and love you from afar for as long as you demand it.

He knows how you breathe, how you feel, how you wonder. He also knows your struggles. He meets you with Mercy when you fail to live in the way that He knows is best for you. He asks you to wait for something much better than you can imagine. He sighs with your impatience and anger at Him and loves you anyway.

Your life is so much more than you can even imagine. His plans for you are so far above your ideas as the Heavens are above the Earth. Allow Him, the author of your very soul, to whisper the first parts of His desire
s for you in the silence of your expectant heart.

I will pray each day for you, my brother, my sister in Christ,
Christie Martin

A Post a Day #1: Newborn Love

Since Mr. Baby arrived two weeks ago, sleep has been scarce. We're a little used to that, but each time we go through the process, there's a bit of an adjustment and some complaining to do. For those of you new to parenting, let me pass this bit of advice a seasoned mother passed on to us when we were new parents:

Sleep is overrated and under appreciated.

You can function just fine on much less sleep than you'd think. You can also manage to get up and go when you have to. You will also realize a true sense of gratitude for a solid four hour stretch of sleep. Indeed, you will be more grateful for less sleep than you ever thought possible. Sleep is wonderful. Parenting will teach you that, if nothing else.

What does this have to do with the title, you may be wondering? 

A newborn teaches a parent so many things. First of all, he teaches you about sleep by depriving you of it. Mostly, though, he teaches you how to love. In our culture, love is understood as an emotion, a twitterpation of the hormones. In reality, love is a lot less about hormones and a lot more about deciding to love.

Parenting a newborn is like attending a parenting Boot Camp.

Parenting a newborn is parenting boot camp. Your life is suddenly transformed, you find yourself in the middle of new demands for physical and mental endurance. You've got a lot to learn in a short amount of time. You come out of those first few months transformed.

The world's best description of true love is described in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoings but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...

Who better to teach you patience, kindness, bearing, hoping, and enduring than a helpless, demanding newborn? This stage of parenting is tough. Your nights are endless. Each moment is likely to be interrupted by a cry. There's many a new parent who wonders what in the world have they signed up for?!

What does a newborn teach us? Don't worry so much about your feelings. Worry more about the beloved than yourself. Suffer a bit for the sake of her. Trust that this moment will pass. Trust that there is more in you to give.

Oh fine! I'll do it, but first tell me when I will fall in love with my baby! By doing all you can for him, by putting yourself second to her, you are proving your love rather than falling in it. Don't worry so much about your feelings. Those loving feelings might not come right away, or maybe they are there but you are too exhausted to recognize them. Just know that with all of the weight of your selflessness for this precious one behind it, when the feeling does announce itself to you, this love will be more intense than anything you can imagine.

Like all good loves, give it time and give it your all. Love Himself showed you how. Christ on the Cross teaches us that love is worth all you can give

and more...

No greater love than this...

Love? What is love?

We live in a world that worships emotions and yet has no idea what love is. We are ruled by the whims of our lives. We love, or not, based on the physiological impulses that stir within us. The result is the chaos you see around you. Crime, loneliness, divorce.

Our culture has turned it's back on Love Himself, so is it any wonder we suffer from a dearth of love? Is it any wonder that we have forgotten how to keep our communities close, our families together, and our world peaceful?

Tomorrow is a day we celebrate love as a culture, but our culture has only a superficial idea of love. We think that love is an emotion. Love is so much more. Love is a person. Love is an act of the will. Love is a decision.

Love Himself tells us about Love, how to love, how to define love. I would like to share this measure of how well we love. It comes from a priest I know. As a widower he took his Holy Orders, so he knows Love in its many forms. He says to take the definition of love given in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 and substitute your own name for the word love. Ask yourself, does this describe you? It should. More and more perfectly.

So, I leave you with this idea of love on the eve of St. Valentine's Day. How do you measure up? Do this, be this, my brother, my sister, and you can read that last line as a promise. You will never fail. 

I am patient. I am kind. I am not jealous. I am not pompous. I am not inflated. I am not rude. I do not seek my own interests. I am not quick-tempered. I do not brood over injury. I do not rejoice over wrongdoings, but rejoice with the truth. I bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things.