God's Love, There Is No Greater Gift

​I know my writing is a gift from God. I know it because many days thoughts and words come to my heart and then to my mind and then to paper that could never get there if it was totally dependent on me.

I think, feel, and understand things in ways I never did before I understood God.

This gift - writing - it is a beautiful thing.

Beautiful, that is, until I start believing the gift is THE thing.

Some mornings I don't write. And if I'm being honest, I feel guilty those mornings. Sometimes very guilty. A guilt that has little to do with you the reader who may have desired to read something that didn't arrive, or me the writer who gets great fulfillment out of having written something one might read.

No, the guilt comes from this feeling that I denied God the chance to use my gift in the way he desired it to be used that day. Which, in some strong ways, can leave me feeling more loved by God on the days I write than on the days that I do not.

I believe we are all susceptible to these feelings. Feelings that come from losing sight of God's greatest gift to us.

His love.

And the second greatest gift - not far behind - our recognizing and receiving and treasuring that love.

Neither of those gifts require more from us than us sitting in a quiet place alone, feeling God's love, and echoing it back.

I love you too, God.

Have my sons ever done anything more beautiful with my love, any act or any project that meant more to me than hearing - I love you too?

No.

It is true that God wants to use my writing - his gift to me - to share him and his love with the world. But God wants me to do that as a reflection of his loving me and not as the pathway to him loving me.

This gift God has given me isn't to be used to gain a bigger gift, it is to showcase the most beautiful truth that I've already received the biggest gift of all.

His love.

Maybe there are days when we all feel like we aren't doing enough with the gifts God has given us. I would encourage you on those days or in those moments to sit in a quiet place and thank God for the greatest gift of all.

Thank him not with an article.

Thank him not with a mission trip.

Thank him not with a donation to the poor.

Thank him, simply, by saying - I love you too.

I love you too, God - little fuels the tank and the desires to do more with the gifts you've been given.