Mush...?

I have been told that I am mushy.

I have also been called a mushball, soppy... sentimental, you name it. Probably true hehe, BUT I have a few thoughts on the matter. At which point does mushy become a bad thing!?

I admit that it's in my nature to get 'mushy' about stuff. I find life very moving at times, frequently, well daily if I'm honest. Maybe it's that I'm overly sentimental? Or could it be that I have begun to realise the value of what is around me...?

These song lyrics always stuck in my head 'you never know what you got til it's gone'. I think that sometimes that's true, but not always. In the last couple of years I think I've begun to see how blessed I really am. I mean I love my family to peices, my parents are brilliant, I have the two most beautiful sisters in the whole world, legendary extended family around the globe, my friends are awesome, most of the time I'm genuinely really happy, I live in a beautiful little town, I can drive, I'm at Uni, doing the course I've always wanted to do, I get to travel, I can dream and have the hope, and the possibility of seeing my dreams becoming reality. I have been blessed with so much, and hey right now I'm just telling it how it is. Is that mush?

If I were to tell you how much you mean to me, is that mush? If I were to tell someone the times when they have made life worth living for me, is that mush? If I were to tell someone I loved them, would that be mush?

How about if I were to tell you of my love for my saviour, would that be mush? If I were to write of his many gifts to me, would that be mush? If I were to speak to you of all the things he has done in my life, would that be mush?

Now. What if Almighty God were to tell you how much he loves you? Or if he told you why he made you, of all the many thoughts going through his eternal mind as he designed you? What if his son, your saviour told you why he went through all the agony and torture of Calvary? You wouldn't call that mush.

I was thinking...

If we are made in the image of God, and we have a heart, so must he. If we can even feel love, how much more can he. You and I have been made with an incredibly acute sense of feeling, finely tuned emotions, and the capacity to love. He put it in us, and I imagine that anything we have, is there to be used, to be enjoyed. Well, my thoughts are-I want to use my heart to the greatest capacity it has, in every direction. The greatest command we have from Him is to love. To love him, and to love others. That seems the biggest excuse in the world to be extreme about it!

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean be false with it. No way. I just mean be genuine. If you feel it, say it. If someone means something, tell them. If God has blessed you, thank him. There are more facets to love than we understand. If we began to... I think the world would notice.

I was walking home one day in autumn, and it had been particularly windy so the leaves were everywhere. As I walked past one driveway I saw a man raking up the leaves. Fairly average-yeah, until I saw his three year old son toddling behind him with a plastic rake... cos Dad was doing it, he wanted to. I love that image.

God is love.

The biggest compliment we can make him, is for us to emulate him.