Encouraging Words March 11, 2013

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- The Buddha

 

   Many years back, my sister-in-law was pregnant with her third child and I was already raising three kids all of whom were in grade school at this time. I remember her asking me “how do you divide your love between three kids?”

 

     Somehow the Holy Spirit intervened because I am not known for my eloquence in speech, just ask anyone in my family, because I actually answered, “It doesn’t divide, it multiplies!”

    And it’s true. As the years have gone on I never felt my love was divided between my husband and my three children. It was always on the grow!  And today that love has grown to include a wonderful son-in-law and even to his two brothers who feel like sons to me too one of which even asked his mom if he was supposed to call me “mom” too now since we were all ‘related’ by marriage!  I was so touched!

Multiplying your love, in my experience as a mom, has brought thousands of joys in my life. It has also brought tons of worry, anxiety, and sorrow too. Like when my freshly married daughter followed her husband two thousand miles away in his new job.  How would I, the mom who had to hold everyone’s hand in at the mall, who didn’t go to sleep at night until I had looked in and blessed all of my kids and knew they were safely at home, who uses text messaging as a crutch to check in on my kids who aren’t living at home any more, deal with a child moving that far away? And then not only the miles, but the two hour time difference.   I was going to bed when she was getting off work!

 

   Multiply the love, says the Holy Spirit.

 

   Who knew multiplying the love would help in mileage too? Not me and if you would have tried to sell me on that before they moved, there would have been No Sale!  I still don’t like it, but since I haven’t won the lottery and can pay them to stay local, I guess I have to be thankful they have jobs and are experiencing the closeness and bonding of a married couple only being so far apart from family can do.

Multiplying the love helps me get through the day after my son tells me he is planning a trip to go sky diving, or my other daughter joining a college group to travel to our nation’s capitol to take part in a conference.  Multiplying the love means I am able to deal with my husband’s blood sugar drops and lows with diabetes and knowing what to do without panicking.

When this same sister-in-law was pregnant with her seventh child, she went into premature labor at 19 weeks. She was put on bed rest, then a hospital stay, but my tiny niece was born at 21 weeks, with a very slight chance of surviving.

 

   There in the hospital, inside an incubator, with tubes and lines going all over her tiny little body which at the time didn’t even have skin growing on it yet, I wondered how in the world my brother and his wife could cope with this when they had to leave her at the hospital and go home to their other six children who needed them too.  Once again, the Holy Spirit shut me up and instead of my words, the Spirit’s words opened my mouth to reassure them, “Her guardian angels will be here the whole time with her, I know they are here with her.”  Multiplying love. It works miracles and somehow they were able to go home, get rest and reassure their children everything was in the Lord’s hands.

   I take no credit for knowing anything about Multiplying Love. It’s a phenomenon of the Holy Spirit. Truly. I only know that it is incredibly hard to do, make no mistake, it takes prayer, tons and tons of prayer. But you know where Multiplying Love comes from? Trust.

 

   Trust: That word weighs like a ton.  It settles on your shoulders and your heart.  And the ONLY one you can trust with all the weight and the worries, anxieties, fears and sorrows is God.  It’s a constant work in progress, it is an action; trust. I wake up every day having to recommit to it. It does not come easily some days. Trusting in God and letting go of myself is like having to do exercise! But the more you do it, the better you get at it. I didn’t say it becomes easier, because it does not. But you can manage it and get better at trusting and love.   Trust is what fuels Multiplying Love.  Multiplying Love comes directly from God. He is so very good at love and it’s nothing for Him to love the billions of people in this world all the same at the same time.

 

   So TRUST = MULTIPLYING LOVE

   Your candle will not diminish, only grow all the brighter as you light the candle of others!