LOVE #2
FROM THE BOOK "SWINDOLL'S ULTIMATE BOOK OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND
QUOTES" ---
To "Let Go" Takes Love
To "let go" does not mean to stop caring, it means that I can't
do it for someone else.
To "let go" is not to cut myself off, it is the realization that
I can't control another.
To "let go" is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural
consequences.
To "let go" is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is
not in my hands.
To "let go" is not to try to change or blame another, it is to
make the most of myself.
To "let go" is not to care for, but to care about.
To "let go" is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To "let go" is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human
being.
To "let go" is not to be in the middle arranging all the
outcomes, but allow others to effect their own destinies.
To "let go" is not to be protective, it is to permit another to
face reality.
To "let go" is not to deny, but to accept.
To "let go" is not to nag, scold, or argue, but instead to search
out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To "let go" is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to
take each day as it comes, and cherish myself in it.
To "let go" is not to criticize what I dream I can be.
To "let go" is not to regret the past, but to grow and to live
for the future.
To "let go" is to fear less and to love more.
-Margaret J. Rinck, "Can Christians Love Too Much?"
......
IF I belittle those whom I am called to serve, talk of their weak
points in contrast perhaps with what I think of as my strong
points; if I adopt a superior attitude, forgetting "Who made thee
to differ? and what hast thou that thou has not received?" then I
know nothing of Calvary love.
IF I take offense easily, if I am content to continue in a cool
unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know
nothing of Calvary love.
IF I feel bitterly towards those who condemn me, as it seems to
me, unjustly, forgetting that if they knew me as I know myself
they would condemn me much more, then I know nothing of Calvary
love.
-Amy Carmichael, "If"
......
WE MUST KEEP REACHING OUT to people ... After all, that is what
love is all about.
Love has a hem to her garment That trails in the very dust;
It can reach the stains of the streets and the lanes ... And
because it can, it must.
-G. Frederick Owen, "Abraham to the Middle East Crisis"
......
'TIS BETTER TO HAVE LOVED AND LOST, than never to have loved at
all.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
......
Constancy
You gave me the key to your heart, my love;
Then why do you make me knock?
Oh, that was yesterday, Saints above!
And last night-I changed the lock!
-John Boyle O'Reilly, quoted in Kathleen Hoagland, "1,000 Years
of Irish Poetry"
......
ONE EVENING just before the great Broadway musical star, Mary
Martin, was to go on stage in "South Pacific," a note was handed
to her. It was from Oscar Hammerstein, who at that moment was on
his deathbed. The short note simply said:
"Dear Mary, A bell's not a bell till you ring it. A song's not a
song till you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to
stay. Love isn't love till you give it away.
-James Hewett, "Illustrations Unlimited"
......
Love
I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.
-Roy Croft, quoted in Hazel Felleman, "The Best Loved Poems of
the American People"
......
LITTLE CHAD was a shy, quiet young fella. One day he came home
and told his mother, he'd like to make a valentine for everyone
in his class. Her heart sank. She thought, "I wish he wouldn't do
that!" because she had watched the children when they walked home
from school. Her Chad was always behind them. They laughed and
hung on to each other and talked to each other. But Chad was
never included. Nevertheless, she decided she would go along with
her son. So she purchased the paper and glue and crayons. For
three whole weeks, night after night, Chad painstakingly made
thirty-five valentines.
Valentines Day dawned and Chad was beside himself with
excitement! He carefully stacked them up, put them in a bag, and
bolted out the door. His mom decided to bake him his favorite
cookies and serve them up warm and nice with a cool glass of milk
when he came home from school. She just knew he'd be
disappointed; maybe that would ease the pain a little. It hurt
her to think that he wouldn't get many valentines--maybe none at
all.
That afternoon she had the cookies and milk out on the table.
When she heard the children outside she looked out the window.
Sure enough here they came, laughing and having the best time.
And, as always, there was Chad in the rear. He walked a little
faster than usual. She fully expected him to burst into tears as
soon as he got inside. His arms were empty, she noticed, and when
the door opened she choked back the tears.
"Mommy has some warm cookies and milk for you."
But he hardly heard her words. He just marched right on by, his
face aglow, and all he could say was:
"Not a one ... not a one." Her heart sank.
And then he added, "I didn't forget a one, not a single one!"
-Dale Galloway, "Rebuild Your Life"
......
TRUE LOVE is a splendid host.
There is love whose measure is that of an umbrella. There is love
whose inclusiveness is that of a great marquee. And there is love
whose comprehension is that of the immeasurable sky. The aim of
the New Testament is the conversion of the umbrella into a tent
and the merging of the tent into the glorious canopy of the
all-enfolding heavens ... Push back the walls of family love
until they include the neighbor; again push back the walls until
they include the stranger; again push back the walls until they
comprehend the foe.
-John Henry Jowett, "The Epistles of St. Peter"
......
L--listening when another is speaking,
0--overlooking petty faults and forgiving all failures;
V--valuing other people for who they are;
E--expressing love in a practical way.
-Denis Waitley, "Seeds of Greatness"
......
STAY FERVENT IN LOVE. Fervent is a word that speaks of intensity
and determination. It is an athletic term for stretching to reach
the tape. Have you watched the fellows and gals who run the dash?
When they come around that last turn and they're pressing for the
tape, they'll get right to the end and then they'll lunge
forward. I've even seen them fall right there on the track,
because they're pushing to reach the tape ahead of the one
they're competing against. It's the idea of intensity at the
tape, stretching yourself. Those who do the long jump leap into
the air and throw their feet forward and they, with intensity,
stretch every muscle of their body to reach as far as they can.
The same with the high jumpers, or with the pole vaulters. They
stretch to the uttermost to reach the limit. That's the word
fervent.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? It has hands to help others, feet to
hasten to the poor and needy, eyes to see misery and want, ears
to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks
like.
-Augustine
......
HEAT MAKES ALL THINGS EXPAND. And the warmth of love will always
expand a person's heart.
-Chrysostom
......
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O, no it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
-William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 116"
......
To be continued
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