Wisdom from Curly Sue

Often times we take for granted the people we do life with....you know, the people in your house, in your office, in your inner circle. These are the people God has placed right next to you.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why they are there? Are you serving them enough? Are you praying for them? Do you give them more than just a casual hello? Are they hungry for words of encouragement?

Our God is all about loving and He uses us, His people, to share that love. What an incredible honor?! So what is love? How do we do it?

Anyone remember that old movie Curly Sue? The homeless father and daughter that travel around scamming people and end up falling in love with a rich lady. Anyway, there is a part in the movie when the rich lady is asking Sue how she knows her dad really loves her and she answers, "because he lets me eat first."

Wow...that says a lot when you know they didn't have food all of the time. But how can we apply that to our lives? We need to remember to put others before ourselves, we can't forget to love the ones we do life with. They are our cheerleaders, they are our support staff, they are our secretaries and our counselors. These are the people we should love the most outrageously. They should have no doubt that they are loved and thought of daily.

So, here is the challenge...love someone today. Someone that is close to you, someone that you dump on because you know they will love you anyway. Love them the way they need to be loved (not just a way that makes you feel like you did something). If you don't know how they best receive affirmation you better get busy figuring it out.

"...we love because He first loved us..."