Love won that day

February 14th. The day for cute heart candies, delicate flowers, yummy chocolates and those sweet valentines. Don't sigh, this isn't going to contain a list of pros and cons. Personally, I love Valentines Day with all the fuzzy feelings and smiles that accompanies it! But God has been laying a "forgotten" perspective on my heart recently, not just about today but EVERY day. A refreshing new addition. It was simply a reminder to love, be kind, forgive endlessly, encourage and to speak graciously.

Holidays make it easy to give, to remember who we love, what we're thankful for, and so on. 
What about all the days in between? The days we don't think twice about just giving a simple smile. The days we let anger take control. The days we forget to love. The days we dwell on the hurt. The days we miss the opportunity to just encourage a friend, a stranger. The days it's all about "me". I'm guilty of it. 
Yet, in the midst of my selfish ways, I remember what true love did for me. Jesus didn't stop at the cross and say, "You are not worth the pain and agony. I don't feel like loving you today." Why? Because He is love.

Love won that day.

The cross, that was done out of love for us (see Romans 5:6-8) so we could share that same love to others and give them the opportunity to embrace their Savior. This is where we need to reflect that love and grace to others (whether we think they deserve it or not) that we are given by Him.

1. How do you motivate and encourage others?
Hebrews 10:24-25 
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Proverbs 12:25 NLT 
Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.

2. How do you speak to others?
Colossians 4:6 
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Proverbs 16:24 
Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

3. How do you love? (Family, friends, relationships, co-workers, strangers and even enemies)
1 Peter 1:22 
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

John 13:34-35 
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

1 Corinthians 16:14 
Let all that you do be done in love.

Proverbs 3:3 
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

4. What should you be equipped with?
Colossians 3:12-14 
Put on then, as Gods chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as The Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Micah 6:8 
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does The Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Allow this verse to change the way you treat those who you encounter daily.
Hebrews 13:1-2 
Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.

When you honor each other, you honor God. Remember: through all the guilt, lost friendships, broken hearts, the just plain ol' "bad day" -- Love already won. Let your love be anew everyday... just as He loves you.