grace, love and the pool.

"Messes are part of being a mother, a big part" Mrs. Quimby said to Ramona.

This week we have been listening to "Ramona's World" written by Beverly Cleary. I loved reading the Ramona books when I was younger and I think I love it just as much now at 36. Only, instead of Ramona, I pay attention to how Ramona's Mom, Mrs. Quimby, handles the details of being a stay-at-home mom. She lives motherhood quite admirably and has encouraged me as the pace of summer vacation begins taking shape. Even though weary, she remains patient and kind, always with a listening ear. Loving her family.

This week has included dentist appointments, target and wal-mart trips (we are getting ready to go to camp next week), cleaning and trying to make my way through messes that have been made this spring, and trips to the pool. Most importantly, have been my reminders to love. Even when that means that my agenda is put aside to once again, go to the pool.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.