The First Time I Got It..

Do you remember the first time you "got it"? The first time you realized you loved God with all your heart, soul, and mind?

My first time was in Junior High. I was at youth group hanging out with my friends and listening to the message. I remember feeling like I was learning about God for the first time in a way that I could understand and I started to understand His love for me. A few day later, my mom and dad explained that they wanted us to become members of Central and they wanted to know if I would want to get baptized. I asked my mom what it meant to get baptized and I specifically remember her saying in the midst of her explanation, "Jesus tells us to be baptized". She could of just stopped right there because I don't remember anything else. I remember thinking well if Jesus said to do it then I should do it. When I was baptized I did understand that Jesus came to die for my sins and through Him we have eternal life. But the thing that got me was, Jesus tells me to do it so why shouldn't I? I was just so in love with the Lord that I wanted to do anything that He told me to do. If it was important to Jesus then I wanted it to be important to me.

This mindset has stayed with me all of my life, I want what is important to Jesus to be important to me. Don't get me wrong there are moments in my life when I get distracted or throw myself a pity party because I get upset with some of the struggles in life. However, God is always there to remind me of His love or He sends someone into my life to remind me of His truth and love. God is faithful.

My love for God only becomes deeper the more I learn about His love. "Our love for Him always comes out of His love for us" (Crazy Love, p. 62). I try put aside what I know about earthly love in order to examine a heavenly, perfect love that only comes from God. The more I know Him the more I love Him, this is one of the reasons why I enjoy reading Scripture. God's Word just shows His love and desire for His creation.

I hope that my motivation in life is always love, His love. I don't serve and help others just to be helpful and serve, I serve because God loves them, even if they don't know it yet, and He is teaching me to love them. His love and compassion moves me to action.