I don’t know about your week, but mine was a whirlwind of chaos. As a student attending my second year of classes, I’m almost positive the first week never gets easier.

Let’s face it, summer ruins routine for us all. The idea of embracing the excitement of what is to come this school year has easily been blurred by 8am classes that I didn’t sleep enough for prior to attending, 75-minute classes that I’m almost positive NO ONE goes to without getting side-tracked and loses some quality notes for an upcoming quiz, and the 100+ new faces and figures we all begin to notice and compare ourselves to.

Whether it’s a new pair of Nike shoes the woman jogging past you has on display as you walk to your office, the Victoria Secret Angel’s plastered on your snapchat feed as you enter class, updating you with a lack of self-confidence and the “rules” to a body like Gigi’s, Society defines love as a “look.”

Although I agree that love is something you CAN see, there is a difference in loving something based off of HOW it looks and expressing your love to share so they have an example of WHAT to look for.

As we build off of the first of the fruits discussed in Galatians - LOVE!- Let me suggest this:

1.FulFEEL, first!

2.Share, second!

God created you in His very own image. He looks past your mistakes and He looks right at you and says,

“There’s my masterpiece.

That’s my son.

That’s my daughter.”

You and I have each been rooted in love since long before we were placed in a world that was rooted by rules consisting of your jean size or your hair color.

Let’s get so caught up in our maker that we forget about the material things.

FEEL the love that God has expressed through his actions, today.

* * * * *

Almost 13 years ago, my parents surprised my sisters and me with the news that two little girls would be welcomed into our family. My Mom was expecting another set of twins.

Almost 13 years ago, I watched my Mom’s belly turn into a watermelon. I watched her begin to waddle around like a penguin, amazed at the ability of one women to have not just one, but two, living beings growing inside her body.

Almost 13 years ago, I sat in my Aunt and Uncle’s house with my other sister’s as my Mom went to the hospital. I don’t remember my Mom acting concerned before that day at all. But I do remember the look on my Aunt’s face after they told her the news on the phone.

Almost 13 years ago this month, Andrea and Ashley went to be with Jesus, leaving my childlike mind with nothing but a marker with their names etched on it, a whole lot of questions, and a huge loss of words.

I didn’t love Andrea and Ashley because of their names or how they looked. I never saw them. I loved them for the hiccups my sisters and my hands got to exchange our laughter with. For the kicks and the heartbeats on the monitor screen at the doctor’s office. For all God had in store for them to do, even in the short amount of time that they were here, and how that would encourage me as their older sister and our family in the days that would follow to overcome the outcome of the situation and use it to grow stronger together.

As the myrtle crape’s planted, one at our house and one at our home church, grows and blooms throughout the year, so has my acknowledgement in Love that is found through FulFEELing yourself throughout the circumstances and the situations that you are faced with each day.

Once you begin investing in the promise of a purpose and a plan God has each placed on our hearts, you can wake up to the capability of sharing that with the world around you.

Philipians 1:21-23 states,

“For me to live is Christ [His life in me], and to die is gain [the gain of the glory of eternity]. If, however, it is to be life in the flesh and I am to live on here, that means fruitful service for me; so I can say nothing as to my personal preference [I cannot choose], But I am hard pressed between the two. My yearning desire is to depart (to be free of this world, to set forth) and be with Christ, for that is far, far better.”

I can assure you that we will never find answers in the clothes we wear or the technology we own, as they change in seasons and trends.

I encourage you to desire the real thing: a real love that is far, far, better. A real love that can only be found in Jesus. Seek Him first. Want Him above all.

I’m going to choose to Love.