Nodding the head, grunting, and a quick hi. What kind of greeting is that. What does it tell them? That I am to busy for them? That I am having a bad day and don't want any help out of this pit of stench I am in?  And what about when I ask how they are and don't wait for an answer? Does it make them feel loved or that I really care? I don't think so. What does saying I am fine when I am not tell them? No I don't want you to really know me or pray with me; nor do I want you to know my life isn't perfect. This greeting business is giving me something to think about and something to talk to my Father about.

A Prayer To Take Time With People

Lord don't let me just rush by each person I greet.

Help me take time to their hearts meet.

Help me to open up and let them see inside.

Help me embrace them and not hide because of pride.

Help me to see the sad, weary and worn.

That I may embrace them with Your love evening, noon, and morn.

I am but a vapor my time passes fast.

So help me slow down and not rush past people so fast.

Give me a heart that is sincere.

Help me to see people and each moment as dear.

For none of us know how long we will be here.

Help me to love people and draw them near. Amen

The Look Of Love

The look of love is in your eyes a look that time can't disguise. This line of a song got me to thinking about love. Facial expression tells a lot about how I feel. But there are some people in the world who are not able to express their feelings very well that way. People who have had a stroke and are paralyzed on one side, people with some birth defects, and people who have had accidents or surgery on their face. A lot of times because of  the lines on my face that time and life has placed there; miss represents how I feel. Even exhaustion can disguise my feelings. I am glad that expressions of love can come in other forms, such as giving, or in words, or in actions. That is why I like to dig deeper to get to know people. I have found some loving big hearted people hidden under a mask of age, physical and emotional problems, and just plain exhaustion. Beautiful people whom I would have otherwise avoided because of how they looked. I am glad God has taught me to take time to talk to people no matter what their expression or how they look. In doing so I have received from them love, wisdom, and friendship. They and God have helped me to grow and taught me how to give unconditionally. I have learned that beautiful people are not those with perfect looks although they can be if their heart is right with God. Beauty is found in the well spring of the heart, mind, and spirit that loves God. The look of love is sometimes seen only by looking inside the person your looking at. That takes time and effort which most of the world is to busy for. I know a sincere lengthy greeting time is not always possible but, it is possible more often than I allow it to be. Lord help me slow down and take the time more often please!  Also by taking the time to peek into a heart I have been able to give love, help, understanding and more; because it has made me able to see their need. looking at a persons heart is more than discovering if a person is good or bad or right or wrong. It carries a responsibility to love, help, listen to and try to understand that person. It carries the weight of  earned trust eventually as a person opens up more and more. There is a lot more to looking in to someone than seeing a look of love that time can't disguise. Also I have to be willing to let others look inside of me too. True believers who look inside others live by God's words in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. They say you can tell a book by it's cover. I say if the cover is marred you  may have to take time to open it up and read a little inside. 

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:12-16

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