Love...actually

Hey there ladies and gents,

Today I was reminded of something very important that I knew, but I feel I had lost the importance of it.
My devotional is about Becoming a Woman who Loves, and today was about the source of true love and how we can express love to the Lord and to others the best.

The key points revolved around the Holy Spirit and Obedience. So many verses in scripture tell us this main point from Jesus and the Father, "if you love me, then obey me."
As I read more of the verses, I came across the ones that said those who do not obey, really do not love the Father, and that only once we love our Father can we truly learn to love others. Wow. What basic concept, yet so true and refreshing.

It reminds me of memories of my childhood when my earthly father would always tell me if I loved him then I would obey him. When I was a small kid I had the hardest time verbally saying "i love you" to my parents. In my little 7, 8, 9 year old mind, I felt like how could I say something so huge like that when I know sometimes I would fail them.
"Love" was such a precious and powerful word to me then, and it almost makes me laugh to think how deeply and better I understood God's truths as child than I even do now. But then again, the Bible does say we can only come to him with faith of a child...so maybe that's why.

These memories also make me so thankful for my parents because as a child I did see them as worthy to tell me that they loved me even with having such a strict and even somewhat "perfect" idea of what love is (never doing someone wrong). In my eyes my parents were always there for me and did what was best for me, even when I didn't like it.
Thankfully now I understand that of course they failed me too, just as we all fail each other.

But wouldn't it be nice if we all thought more about trying to always be "worthy" to say we loved someone....being more concern on whether our actions backed up our words. I hope I never forget my childlike view of love.

1 John 5:1-3
¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. ²This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. ³This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome