GOD IS LOVE.

So I was blessed and honored to get to spend time with my crazy family over the holiday break. I absolutely love spending time with them. We have known each other for a long time and have grown to have a comfort level around each other that you can’t create. We pick on each other, and make fun of each other, but at the end of the day we all are family, and truly love one another.So in our family, my uncle gets a good bit of good-natured “razzing” for a myriad of different reasons…yes he brings a lot of it on himself, haha. But watching him this past week, and remembering over the years I am extremely impressed how he takes it and continues on without getting upset or hurt. He allows the jokes to not affect him, but rather he takes them in such a way that the rest of the family can take enjoyment in them without hurting him.I believe this to be the result of one simple word…LOVE. He knows at the end of the day, that we love him. Similar to myself, I know that without a shadow of a doubt, no matter how much grief I get from my sisters or parents, they love me more than I could imagine. They always have and they always will.God is very similar. While there are things that happen to us throughout the day and throughout our lives that we may see as hurtful, God never stops loving us. We may be made fun of, we may be knocked down, but as a good friend of mine used to always say…is God still on the throne? The answer is always a resounding YES. And as long as the answer is yes, then God still loves us and wants the best for us (even if it may not look like it at times)."For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16We can’t allow the small things that we encounter each and every day to affect how we experience or view God’s love. His love is the foundation from which we should be living. It’s the “home base” that we can come back to if we are injured, or need rest.Be confident and bold knowing that the Savior of the Universe loves you and is in your corner no matter what happens in your life. Hold onto that, and the rest wont seem to matter.Ill leave you with a line from one of my favorite Hymns of all time…"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."