there are moments, fleeting moments when i feel all air is being taken out of me. when i feel like i'm about to collapse. it hits you without forewarning and makes you gasp for air. you feel like everything around you is crumbling and that you are crumbling with it. ..and then you realize that this is reality. we live in a world where things fade in and out. nothing lasts forever except the hope and friendship we have in our Lord. So long as we keep seeking strength from our God we are forever renewed and rebuilt into a fortified structure that will never crumble for eternity. though everything else around us shatters into pieces, though our life-path becomes blurred and grey, though at times we feel like giving in and crumbling with everything else in this world, HE will be a stronghold. He will be our crutch to forever lean on. For it is NEVER by our own strength, but by His who will keep us standing when all the glitter and glam corrodes into non-existence.

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Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Help me learn to love the way You have asked me to love. Help me to be satisfied with Your love alone and not to be so easily saddened or hurt from others for love is never self-seeking. Teach me to love how you love...