{"id":181,"date":"2012-04-03T16:20:38","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T16:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=181"},"modified":"2012-04-03T16:20:38","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T16:20:38","slug":"easter-countdown-2-love-god-serve-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=181","title":{"rendered":"Easter Countdown #2 – Love God, Serve Others!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On our grief journey, we have learned that one of the things most\u00a0helpful to our family has been the\u00a0reminder given by Paul in\u00a02 Corinthians.\u00a0 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.\u00a02 Cor 1:4 (NCV)<\/em> We have been comforted by simple acts of kindness and love, and now, we are able to do the same for others.<\/p>\n

I distinctly remember Easter 2008 when my best friend called and said, “You are getting out of the house this weekend.”\u00a0 I hadn’t left my children’s side (other than school for them) since the bus crash.\u00a0 So I wasn’t sure how I was going to physically leave, but deep down I knew I needed to do it.\u00a0 She told me that she had boiled about a bazillion eggs and that she and her family were coming over to dye Easter eggs with the kids.\u00a0 She knew how much traditions (including egg-dyeing) mean to us.\u00a0 She also knew I\u00a0had zero energy to pull that off.\u00a0 The day came and with God’s help, I mustered the courage and sense of peace to leave my house and take a break.<\/p>\n

I have spoken about how simple acts fueled my family through many dark hours.\u00a0 This is the type of comfort that I think Paul was addressing when he reminded us that we need to give to others the same comfort we were given.<\/p>\n

For our Easter countdown activity, our family wanted to remember exactly how Jesus lived.\u00a0 Throughout his life, he embodied our family’s mission statement: Love God, Serve Others!\u00a0 It’s really that simple!<\/em> In everything Jesus did, he humbled himself . . . fully God, yet fully human . . . to love on others, often the ones most neglected by others.\u00a0 He fed, he nurtured, he wept,\u00a0 he healed, he dried tears, he washed feet, . . never thinking of himself first, yet always\u00a0knowing the precise amount of comfort to\u00a0proffer.<\/p>\n

As a family, we\u00a0are often reminded of\u00a0the love we felt when someone comforted us.\u00a0 With all that in mind, we ventured off to the dollar store to purchase items for miniature baskets for a dear group of friends who we want to love on this week.\u00a0 Sadly they were out of tiny baskets, but we found lovely Easter themed gift bags.<\/p>\n

After returning home with our supplies in hand, we had supper and once again, got to work.\u00a0 This time, we created an assembly line to stuff Easter grass, a tiny decoration, and chocolate bunny in our bags.\u00a0 The whole time we talked about our friends and the special stories we have cherished from past times spent together.<\/p>\n

We thought hard on who we could bless this week.\u00a0 It didn’t take us long to decide, and of course, we had to the do the work for Huck, because he doesn’t have thumbs.\u00a0 Our recipients will be Huck’s buddies at the nursing home that he visits.\u00a0 The love that we receive from each resident pales in comparison to the joyful dog energy and companionship\u00a0that we bring to them.\u00a0 I think that Cloie’s card sums up what each of the residents mean to our family.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Through the visits our family has made to the nursing home, our children’s minds\u00a0and hearts have been etched not\u00a0to \u00a0fear the elderly, but instead see each one as\u00a0a friend just waiting to be treasured.\u00a0 Our only wish is that the love in those tiny packages carries as long as the love and memories that went into making them! If so, then Paul’s reminder will come true as the circle of love and comfort will continue to envelope others in our path!<\/p>\n

Take-away:<\/strong> Is there someone in your circle of influence that could use a blessing this week?\u00a0 Could you be the hands and feet of Jesus by serving someone else in love?\u00a0 This doesn’t have to be costly, as a card or note can be a great pick me up!\u00a0 If you are a baker, make a little extra of something yummy and share that.\u00a0 Heaven is the limit on boundless love!<\/p>\n

Idealism update: <\/strong>Please note how cluttered\u00a0the rest of the room was while we worked on our masterpieces. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Despite what we all tell ourselves, you don’t have to have it all together to love on someone else!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On our grief journey, we have learned that one of the things most\u00a0helpful to our family has been the\u00a0reminder given by Paul in\u00a02 Corinthians.\u00a0 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.\u00a02 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[76,114,172,380,467,556],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}