J is for "Julie, Julie Do You Love Me?"

Do you know or remember that song from Bobby Sherman?

Julie, Julie, Julie, do ya love me?
Julie, Julie, Julie, do ya care?
Julie, Julie, are ya thinkin' of me?
Julie, Julie, will ya still be there?

You can see more lyrics at Lyrics Mode

Sometimes, I believe God is asking me "Julie, do you love me?" just like when Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?"

And instinctively I answer, "Yes, of course, I love you."

Yet in this world one might ask, "What is love?"

For me, the answer is in "Good Friday".

As Christians, we speak about how much God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die on a cross for our sins.

On Good Friday, we experience a little bit of that time when God leaves us. We take away the things that symbolically or spiritually connect us with God. It is then when we can get a sense of the love we have for God. On that day we face our emptiness, our nothingness, our weaknesses and we can briefly though only by human interpretation experience what our life might be without God.

It is then when we experience that awe and understanding of how much we need and trust and love God.

When He rises on Easter morn-we experience that joy not just in a service but intimately (if we let it) within us. Then I can confidently respond to God when He asks if I love Him not just out of instinctive goodness, fear or respect. I can respond based upon a bigger view of love that "Yes, you are my Lord and I love you!"

One more thing about "Love"-kind of silly perhaps but try singing the song lyrics above but replace "Julie" with your name. Generally, one sings a song to someone, right? But as you sing this song, can you answer, "yes" to the one who is singing it to you? Do you love yourself? If you read my earlier post on "It is what it is" you might have caught the inference that you are a reflection of God and as you love yourself-you reflect that love to God and to others.

Blessings, peace and love!
JulieD

Something Cool to Share!

My son is pursuing a career in Graphics Design and with that in mind he has opened a store front on Zazzle to display some of his designs.

I enjoyed watching him create this design and offered a few suggestions but you know he is a teen. Thankfully, he is a respectful teen and while he listened to my suggestions ultimately he made his own decisions about the design. Personally, I think it turned out great! Of course, I am his mom.

The hardest part, ironically, of this whole process was coming up with a title for his storefront. I say ironically because I edit titles for an online writing site. It should have been easy but we went back and forth with ideas and checked the thesaurus several times in hopes of finding something just right. Sharp Edges was a good compromise and he found a themed image to fit, too.

Today's inspiration via this time with my son is about "process"-often the task I think should be the easiest to tackle is the hardest and I have to ask myself, "Why?" The answer I believe is that when the task is something I think I can manage I usually don't bring it to God or ask for help. Arrogance? Pride? Stupidity! These three bad little attributes have been the downfall of many of my supposedly easy tasks.

If only I had prayed first...if only I had infused the other three-faith, hope and love first...yes, I do believe those simple tasks would have been accomplished easier.

So I guess my questions of the day are:

Is there anything too small or too large to bring to God?
Do you pray first or pray in desperation when things go wrong?

If you don't believe in the power of prayer or in God, can you at least ask for help and/or accept help when it is offered?

Final Note to those who choose not to believe in God or the power of prayer; Faith begins with a tiny step of open trust and hope in God, therefore, if at some point you find yourself needing just a little guidance perhaps you could consider giving honest prayer a try.

Peace to all!

JulieDD