When We Fail at Love

The word “sin” is one of the most common bad words in the Bible, but what does it really mean? In this video, we’ll explore the concept of “moral failure” that underlies this important biblical word. Get ready to discover a profound and realistic portrait of the human condition.

The Struggle is Real

We all strive to live lives marked by love. We want to bring love and kindness into every interaction we have with people. We long to live The Life of Love, not a life filled with sin, but the struggle is real. We struggle with being patient and kind when people are getting on our nerves. We don’t want to forgive others when they wrong us. We aim to live lives marked by compassion, kindness and discipline but in reality our lives are marked by a bad temper, irritability and meanness.

We will never be perfect, and God does not expect perfection from us. God expects us to aim for righteousness, rather than to come up with excuses when we sin. We receive God’s grace freely every time we choose to own up to our mistakes and turn from our sins, rather than to keep going down the wrong path. 

The good news is that God notices every single attempt we make to turn our lives around, it all counts in God’s eyes. The people around you might not notice any difference in your behavior yet, but God knows how hard you are trying to change. God notices every effort we make and he also notices every time we choose sin. We get away with nothing in front of God. There’s no sin you can commit that God won’t judge you for one day, unless you choose to come to Him and ask for forgiveness in repentance.

The beautiful message of the gospel is that no matter how bad you have messed up in your life it’s never too late to change your course. We can never become too broken or too old for God to be able to do His redeeming work in us. We are also aware that we will never “arrive” in this lifetime. You can’t live a generous life in your thirties and forties, retire at 55 and spend the rest of your life focused on yourself. You will never arrive at a place where you have done enough good deeds and can “check out” of your responsibilities and focus on yourself. The day your mission in this life is finished will be the day you die, the day that God brings you home to heaven. 

I’m greatly encouraged by the fact that every day matters to God. How I choose to live my life today is important to God. God doesn’t need me to graduate university, land the dream job or start my own non-profit for Him to be pleased with me. Every small act of kindness and love matters to God. Big dreams and ambition is good to have but God isn’t hard to please. All God requires from me is that I love Him with all my heart, and that I love on all the people I interact with everyday.

When I aim to live this “life of love” God is pleased with me every single day. God gives me the strength I need to be able to choose love, and when I sin, fail and mess up God’s forgiveness and grace is available for me every time. That’s a free and beautiful way to live! I’m aiming for love, but I’m fully aware that I will end up sinning daily and that God will forgive me every time I do. I’m free to try again, without even a hint of shame or condemnation.

 “A good person’s good life won’t save him when he decides to rebel, and a bad person’s bad life won’t prevent him from repenting of his rebellion. A good person who sins can’t expect to live when he chooses to sin. It’s true that I tell good people, “Live! Be alive!” But if they trust in their good deeds and turn to evil, that good life won’t amount to a hill of beans. They’ll die for their evil life.

“‘On the other hand, if I tell a wicked person, “You’ll die for your wicked life,” and he repents of his sin and starts living a righteous and just life—being generous to the down-and-out, restoring what he had stolen, cultivating life-nourishing ways that don’t hurt others—he’ll live. He won’t die. None of his sins will be kept on the books. He’s doing what’s right, living a good life. He’ll live.

 “‘Your people say, “The Master’s way isn’t fair.” But it’s the way they’re living that isn’t fair. When good people turn back from living good lives and plunge into sin, they’ll die for it. And when a wicked person turns away from his wicked life and starts living a just and righteous life, he’ll come alive.”

(EZEKIEL 33:12-19)

Manhood

The sins of men are something we are far too familiar with, we have experienced it in our own lives. We witness how evil men can be as they commit murder, rape, adultery and wage war. We are terrified when we read stories about sexual assault, the holocaust and other evil acts committed by men. Where does all this evil come from and how can we make it stop?

Pastor Matt Chandler from The Village Church talks about men’s struggle with sin in this sermon. We learn that there are two main groups of sin that men tend to lean towards: selfish aggression and selfish passivity. Selfish aggression would include pornography, domestic abuse, thoughtless criticism and withholding attention or affection when someone fails. Selfish aggression is to use money, power or something else to control others. Mocking or belittling others to exalt oneself. Slandering or harming another person’s reputation to get ahead. Deriving pleasure from watching other people suffer etc.

Selfish passivity is evident in a man’s life when he’d rather engage in fantasy than engage his wife and children, when he complains or makes excuses, when he actively avoids conflict, vulnerability or work. Selfish passivity also includes leaving difficult work to others, refusing to help someone in need, apathy, lack of ambition in matters truly important to God and others, and not being appalled by sexual abuse, child abuse, racism etc.

Matt Chandler explains that all humans are either male or female, but just because someone is born male that doesn’t mean he’s a man. We grow from boys and girls into men and women as we mature and as our character is being formed. Sadly, our world is filled with adult males who are still little boys on the inside, males who never put on the character of a man. Aging happens naturally, maturity doesn’t. In the sermon Matt Chandler gives men advice on what they can do to avoid falling into selfish passivity or selfish aggression in their lives.

We must actively pursue maturity to develop good character. As we mature and grow in character we develop the self-control and discipline we need to be able to turn away from our temptation toward sin and choose love and justice. We choose generosity over greed, faithfulness over being unfaithful, kindness over criticism, humility over hate etc. We learn to say “No” to every twisted desire we have, desires that could lead us toward committing evil acts. We all have these desires and they aren’t going away anytime soon.

The evil stops when we learn to control our minds and not give in to our twisted desires and temptations. Every human being is born with the ability to do both good and evil, acting like we aren’t ever tempted toward evil isn’t helpful. The evil stops when we decide to stop practicing it. It isn’t just other people who are adding more evil to this world. Every year you add evil to this world, and I do too. Let’s pursue maturity so that the people in our lives will greatly benefit from knowing us rather than the opposite being true.

Love is in the air

Valentine's Day last week was incredible! My husband and I celebrated 7 years as a couple with a four-course dinner at an Italian restaurant in Toronto. My awesome husband also surprised me with a big bouquet of red roses, macaroons and a "Good Morning Beautiful"-coffee cup as a Valentine's present.

My day got even better when I found out that my brother had proposed to his girlfriend during a walk along the beach on Valentine's Day!!! I cried tears of joy when I got the good news. I look forward to their wedding so much! Love is in the air!

Loveology

“Love is at the forefront of the experience of what it means to be human. We can choose to try to figure it out on our own, or we can choose to see how the designer of love intended us to experience all this. Loveology guides us straight into the heart of God, who created this wonderous, powerful experience of love, romance, sex, marriage, masculinity, and femininity.”

Dan Kimball

“My husband and I heard “loveology” at the beginning of our relationship, and it changed our entire view on love and dating. It exposed and shattered all the “Hollywood movie” lies that were embedded in our minds and replaced them with God’s original design. Following the Loveology principles gave our relationship a sense of direction, saved us from making a lot of painful mistakes many couples make, and answered a ton of questions.”

Naomi and Isaiah

I didn’t grow up in church, which means my view of relationships was partly formed by culture and partly by my family background. I grew up with two parents who loved each other deeply. My Mom and Dad did an excellent job at showing me what a healthy marriage looks like as I was growing up. My parents are committed to each other and love each other very well. For me, the negative influences came through culture, not from my family.

I watched a lot of Hollywood movies as a teenager which strongly influenced my view of love and marriage. When you consume a lot of TV Shows and movies as a teenager the media becomes much more than entertainment. The TV Shows and movies painted a picture of what love, sex and romance was supposed to look like. I specifically remember watching the movie American Pie at age 14 and thinking to myself “I need to fit myself into that type of lifestyle, that’s how it’s done.” Most of the time we aren’t conscious of how much we are influenced by the media, but psychological research shows that we are strongly influenced by what we watch and consume.

We are all strongly affected by our parents’ relationship and pop culture media, another influencer is porn. I was 10 years old the first time my friends and I watched a porn movie on VHS. You can imagine how much a young person’s view of sexuality is influenced when you start watching porn long before you even hit puberty. I don’t want my own kids and future generations to grow up the way I did, exposed to the same destructive lies and distorted views of sex, romance, love and marriage that formed me.

I got married at 26 and at that point I had around 16 years of negative baggage that I brought into my marriage. The more baggage you bring into your marriage the harder you will need to work to overcome those negative past experiences that have formed you. It’s totally possible to overcome your past, but it takes a lot of hard work. I had multiple, short failed relationships before meeting my husband, and he had a few long-term failed relationships before meeting me. When we met and fell madly in love we didn’t want anything to ruin the love we had found. We decided to educate ourselves about love and marriage because “doing things our own way” had led us both to have failed relationships. The more we learned about God’s beautiful design for love, romance, marriage and sex the more we realized why our own ways had not worked. Let me just say that God’s view of sex, romance and love is very different from what porn, Hollywood movies and culture at large are teaching us.

As a society you could say that we are “bad at love”. Statistics show us that around 50% of marriages fail in our modern society. Second and third marriages have even higher chances of failure. Research also shows that couples who live together before they get married have higher chance of divorce than those who move in together after they get married. Couples who lived together before marriage see a 33% higher rate of divorce than those who waited to live together until after they were married. Most of us are fully aware of these depressing statistics, but then there’s another type of shocking statistic. There’s one group of people where research shows that less than 1% of them end up divorced. Man, I want to be a part of that group!!

Couples who pray together on a regular basis have less than 1% chance of divorce. In other words, not couples who attend church a few times a year, but couples who have an active, thriving relationship with God and who seek God together. Those statistics alone is enough to motivate me to prioritize taking time to pray together with my husband daily. In a society where divorce is very common it’s obvious that “doing whatever you feel like” will not lead to a healthy, thriving marriage. My relationship with my husband is far too important for me to risk messing it up. I want to continue to learn more about God’s beautiful plan for marriage every year, and through that get better at loving my husband every day.

I’m Safe in Your Hands

 Picture from http://menalive.dumc.my/page/2/

The book of Psalms is one of my favorite books in the Bible because it reveals God’s character to the reader. David had a very close relationship with God and reading the Psalms is a little bit like reading David’s diary. When I read the book of Psalms it’s like I’m getting to read David’s prayer journal.

If you could read my prayer journal you would know some of the most intimate details about my life. My prayer journal is a collection of what I’m praying for and what God is teaching me through this season. There is no mask, no hiding, no pretending in my relationship with God, when it’s just Him and I the truth is out. I’m fully honest in front of God, in a way that nobody else will ever get from me. If you read my prayer journal you would know everything about me. I’m so grateful that the book of Psalms is included in the Bible, that I get to have the privilege of looking into David’s close and personal relationship with God.

The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,

a refuge in times of distress.

Those who know your name will trust you,

 for you have not forsaken those who seek you, LORD.

Psalm 9:9-10 (ISV)

One thing that becomes clear to me when I study the book of Psalms is that I’m fully safe in God’s hands. I’m like a small baby in her loving father’s hands. The problems start when I learn to walk, and start to wander away from God. Just like everyone else in this world, I’m prone to wander away from my loving father and toward sin. Sin looks so shiny, interesting and harmless from a distance. It doesn’t seem to help that God keeps telling me to stay away from sin, I just gotta have it! It’s like when you tell a toddler not to touch the stove, sooner or later the child will decide to give it a try regardless of the warnings. Seconds later the toddler is crying and in pain with a burnt finger.

It fascinates me how us humans are so much like young children, no matter how old we get. We want what will eventually hurt us, and most of the time we resist what is important and good for us. It’s a war between good and evil, from the day we are born we are bent towards evil. We must teach our children to do what is right. We don’t need to teach children to do what is wrong, they do that naturally. How many parents needed to teach their child to hit their sibling? None.

We work hard to teach ourselves to choose love, because doing what is wrong always seems easier and more interesting to us. If we were bent towards love by nature we wouldn’t need things like self-control and discipline. Self-sacrifice, self-control and discipline become important in a world where doing what is right is not what we want to do, most of the time.

Love is a choice we make, on most days it doesn’t happen naturally. We were all created to love and be loved, but it takes real commitment and work to live that way. I don’t know about you, but I can confess that if I did everything I wanted to do, I would not be a very loving person. The more I choose self-sacrifice, self-control and discipline, the more love I’m able to give to others. Love is a beautiful thing, it’s the only thing that can heal our brokenness in this world, but it requires work.

Think of one area in your life today where you have chosen the easier route lately, because choosing love would be much more difficult. Commit to make one small (but important) change to the world today by committing to choose love over comfort in that area of your life, from this day forward.

Money, Power & The Hunger for Control

So if there is a God, a real and personal God in the universe, wouldn’t it make sense that the most intelligent people in our society would be the ones that find him? God is a funny God, and he’s also full of mercy and grace. God didn’t choose to reveal himself to the smartest, most beautiful, most successful or to all the “good people” on this Earth. The Bible is clear on the fact that God chooses who he reveals himself to, and it’s often the outcasts of this world that God chooses. Why? Could it have something to do with the fact that these people probably are more humble than us who think we are “good people” and “too intelligent” to believe there is a God?

Make no mistake, you can be very intelligent and still become a Christian, but it tends to be harder for the smart, rich and successful in our society to notice God. When you have built a good life for yourself it’s easy to avoid thinking about God. When you find yourself in a prison cell or completely at the end of yourself it’s easy to humble yourself enough to call out to God.

Highly intelligent people like CS Lewis and Timothy Keller came to faith in God through looking at the evidence and using reason. Other people find God when they end up in prison, in a serious drug addiction or something else that makes their whole world fall a part. No story is more important than the other, both the intellectual and the guy in prison are precious to God. What we all have in common is that none of us will be able to accept Christ into our hearts without humility.

The Rockstar Alice Cooper lived a wild life when he was younger but today he is a Christian. My friend Kesavan went to prison for 10 years but today he is a loving father of three and a Christian pastor. CS Lewis was an intelligent atheist Oxford graduate from Belfast, Ireland who is known for writing The Chronicles of Narnia and who also became a Christian. All our stories are very different, but God’s love is the same for the former atheist as for the former criminal or prostitute. We all serve a good, loving and merciful God.

Authentic Love

The word “love” is one of the sloppiest words in our language, as it primarily refers to a feeling that happens to a person. In the New Testament, “love” refers to a way of treating people that was defined by Jesus himself: seeking the well-being of others regardless of their response.

Make Your Love Last

We live in an exciting time in history, we get to enjoy airplane rides that can take us all around the world, the internet, social media etc. Our modern inventions make life fun and exciting, but when it comes to love our modern society doesn't know what to do.


About 50% of all first marriages end in divorce and 67% of second marriages end in divorce. Why is it so difficult for us to make love last? One reason is that we tend to look to romantic relationships as something that should serve us, rather than as a calling to serve someone else. It's impossible to be very selfish and still have a healthy and florishing marriage. Real love isn't self-serving. When two people get married they are committing to serve each other for the rest of their lives. Anyone who has worked in the service industry knows that serving others isn't always fun or easy. It takes commitment, grit and sacrifice to be able to serve someone else.


Imagine how many kids would be in orphanages in Canada if every parent who got tired of serving his/her child decided to end the commitment to the child. Parenting is a lifelong commitment to serve another human-being, the same is true for marriage. Unfortunately we are partly raised by Hollywood movies that teach us that marriage will give us ultimate happiness in life. It won't. Marriage is a beautiful thing but just as with parenting a good marriage requires commitment, work and self-sacrifice. It's funny how the Hollywood movies never mention any of these things isn't it?

I'm a Millionaire

This is my favorite weekend song right now! I am loved by an amazing God whose name is Jesus. I am loved by my amazing family members. I am loved by my wonderful caring friends. I'm a millionaire!


Because love is more precious than gold
It can't be bought, no, never could be sold
I got love, enough to share
And that made me a millionaire

What's Your Impact Story?

The difficulties we face in life can leave us marked with bitterness, frustration and anger, but we can choose to not let that be our story. We will all go through different types of challenges and pain in this life. We have a choice between letting our struggles make our hearts numb, hard and cold or warmer than ever before. We can choose faith, trust and forgiveness in the midst of the challenges that come our way and come out on the other side more compassionate, warm and loving than before. The choice is in our own hands.


In this present world it's impossible to live a pain-free life but we get to choose what will be the end result of our challenges: more love or anger, bitterness and hate. The other side of the coin is that this life is also filled with blessings. We also get to choose what our blessings will do to us. When we receive the favor of God we can either let it make us selfish, arrogant and entitled or humble and loving. Both the challenges and the blessings in life come with a test. Will we choose to let both our good times and hard times in life make us better or more self-centered and prideful?


The key to be able to flourish in this life despite challenges and pain is having a close relationship with God. The key to being able to live a very blessed life without becoming self-obsessed, entitled and arrogant is to know God intimately. If we live our lives without knowing God it is natural for us to become self-centered, entitled and full of pride. Everything we do (or choose not to do) in this life matters. Pastor Holly Wagner from Oasis Church in LA teaches a great message in this video and mentions 3 simple things we can do to make an impact during this life:

1.) Be yourself

2.) Be salt

3.) Be light

Freedom is being completely happy with my body

In today’s society, there seem to be two major options for how we should view our bodies. We can either be unhappy about our bodies or we can take pride in our bodies and show them off. Our culture teaches us that if we don’t like our bodies we should cover them up and be ashamed of them. We also learn that the solution to getting rid off the shame is to proudly show off what we’ve got. Shame or pride, those are the options. What both options have in common is that they put a huge focus on the body. Our bodies are no longer just a body but either “a showpiece” or something to be ashamed of. The reason our bodies will either give us feelings of shame or pride is simple; we have decided that our bodies define our worth. If I don’t look good that means I’m “less than”. If I look great it means I have great worth. If I look good I also need to show off skin so that others can validate my worth. This is the type of language that our current social media culture is teaching us.

Historically humans have always based a person’s value on things like beauty, power and social status, but do we really want to live according to that standard? I don’t know about you, but I know that this cultural ideal has caused me to develop body image issues over the years. When my own world view finally changed I became aware of the fact that that my worth has nothing to do with how I look, no matter what pop culture says. Today I’m no longer struggling with body image issues, I’m completely happy with my body. I’m grateful and appreciative of my body but I no longer view my body as an object that defines my worth.

Today I view my body as “a home” where my soul lives, not as a show piece that needs to be botoxed and fixed to perfection. I no longer have a need to show off skin because I no longer look for other people to give me validation. I found freedom when I stopped objectifying my own body and started seeing my body for what it is; just a body. Today I’m more interested in spending my time and energy on taking care of my soul rather than spending a huge amount of hours at the gym. My body has scars, cellulite and wrinkles, but I can honestly say that this doesn’t bother me at all. Ten years ago I would not have been happy with the scars, cellulite and wrinkles on my body.

Here’s a fact: a few years from now my body will be dead and eaten by worms in a casket. I’m sorry about giving you that gross image in your head, but I think it’s important to let that sink in. Why should I spend huge amounts of money and time on fixing up my body to look perfect when it’s only a temporary shell? I will only do that if I believe that my worth is connected to my looks. Botox will not make me a more loving person. Perfectly toned muscles will not make me a more loving person. If I take that same energy that I used to spend on obsessing about my looks and spend it on growing my character I will end up becoming a more loving person. In the end it comes down to this: What does our world need more of? Does our world need more love or more perfect bodies?

What True Love Really Looks Like

Truly loving others is one of the hardest things to do. Kristen Clark and Bethany Baird get open and honest about their sisterly relationship and share about the difficulties they have in this area.

The Search for Love and Acceptance

As a lonely college student, Jordone Branch searched for love and acceptance. She turned to the party scene but couldn’t find what she was looking for until a friend stepped in to help.

Love is a Choice

Pastor Micahn Carter preaches a great message in this video about love. Love is not just a feeling we have, love always requires action. It was a little uncomfortable to listen to this message because I could so clearly picture what God is asking me to give of myself during what's left of this year. It makes me a little nervous, because it will require sacrifice on my part. But God has given me everything I need in this life and more, so how can I not give to others what He is asking me to give.


We are all called to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself. Who is our neighbor? People who are hurting, people in need. Love isn't simply a feeling, to love is to do something for someone else. Love is a choice. Love isn't always going to feel good or look pretty, to love is to serve someone else by choosing to care for them when you didn't have to. Imagine how different our world would look today if we all decided to choose love. The needs in this word are many, but the people availbale on Earth who have the ability to love are also many. What if we decided to take on each new day not focused on serving our own interests, but focused on how we could love our neighbor each day.


We do alot of achieving and striving in this world but how much, in the end, is love? How much time on our weekly schedules is focused on loving others, versus striving for personal glory? We are all selfish by nature, none of us live lives that look the way we wish that they would look. But when we take the time to ask ourselves some difficult questions, and make changes to our schedules based on the answers, we will see growth every time. Love is a choice. What will you do for those who are in need this year? How will you love your neighbor?


Here's a few things that will not matter at the end of our lives: how much money we made, what title we had at work, how big our house was, how trendy our clothes were, how expensive the car was that we drove. What will matter in the end is how much we loved God and loved other people. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is all about us treating the stranger the same way that we would like to be treated. If that stranger was your son/daughter, how would you treat the person? Do that onto the stranger, your neighbor.

Legacy vs. Love

Self-actualization, a burden or a blessing? We have all heard the stories about how hard life was for our ancestors. My grand-parents didn't have an easy life, at 21-years old they were married with a baby and started their own business. Life was very difficult at times, especially when they lost part of their property in a fire and almost had to move to Sweden to survive. The people in the village came to their rescue and gathered together some money so that they could stay in Finland. I think about that sometimes, about how much it matters to have a loving community of people around you to love on you. Living in a small town isn't always easy but when times were tough these people had each other's back.


My own life at age 21 was completely different than my grand parents'. I moved abroad at 22, not because I had to but because I wanted to chase my dreams. When I met my husband at age 25 I was still in the middle of my "self-actualization journey" and as embarrassing as it is to admit I was afraid that my relationship with my new boyfriend was going to hinder me from making all my dreams come true. Yeah, I definitely had some selfishness-issues that I needed to grow out of. Marriage has taught me many things about life and one of the most important lessons I have learned is that the less I focus on myself the happier I will become. I need to love myself and take care of my own needs of course, but there is no fulfillment or satisfaction in living for myself. My selfishness is still one of my least attractive qualities but the older I get the more I learn to live an others-focused life, rather than an inward focused life.


In today's world we have many opportunities so it's tempting to make life all about chasing our own dreams and pleasures, rather than to look at the bigger picture. I like Chip and Jo's outlook on life and the older I get the more I long to live like they do. I don't want to live for me, focus on becoming successful/famous and end up divorced and with children who I'm too busy/tired to spend time with. My grand parents were not famous or rich people but they loved me with everything they had in them throughout my whole childhood.


My grandmother passed away a few years ago and she is one of my biggest role models in life. She was all about love and family and because of that everyone loved to spend time with her. I could visit her anytime and the moment I rang her doorbell she would stop whatever she was doing and give me her full attention during the visit. I hope to be a grandmother like that one day. I have to start by being that kind of wife, sister, daughter and mother. The love that I got from my grandparents and the rest of my family growing up is what laid a solid foundation in my life. My grandparents were happily married for more than 50 years until my grandmother passed away and I want that kind of life for myself. I know that I would have a much harder time believing in love if I hadn't seen it modeled with such excellence growing up.


Today my family from Finland and Norway traveled back home after their visit to Toronto. Some tears were shed at the airport today but I'm so grateful that I get to have these amazing people in my life. I know that far from every human-being on this planet gets to grow up in a family like mine and I want to make sure that I pass this love on to the next generation. That's my job, to love God and to love people. My purpose on this Earth isn't to make my own name famous but rather to pour as much love as I can onto the next generations. It's the love we receive (or the lack of it) that make us who we are today.

When You Decide, You Will Be Free

That thing that is holding you back in life, that thing that is keeping you in bondage, when you decide to shake it off you will be free. Many times we keep complaining about being in a state in our lives that we don't like, but we are unwilling to look within and find the real solution for our problems. Too many times we are looking for outside sources to solve internal issues. Pastor Michan Carter explains it this way: "We either are complaining that someone's not doing something for us, or we are saying someone did something to us, and we use that as an excuse to never look at us."


Here's the thing with the "issues" we carry around with us through life: "If you don't deal with it, it will deal with you" says pastor Michan Carter. It's tempting to avoid our own issues rather than to look within and deal with our stuff, but the price for issues left undealt with is high. They have the power to ruin our lives and hurt the people we love the most, unless we face them and deal with them. Pastor Michan Carter preaches a great sermon about how we can get free from whatever is holding us back and making us bitter during this season in life.

What is Unconditional Love?

What is Unconditional Love? Love that never ends. God loves every single human-being on Earth unconditionally. We can choose to either love him back or turn our backs on him but he still loves us and will never stop loving us. He longs to be with us like in the beginning, like before this world became broken. One day we will be with him forever, if we choose him.

I chose to marry my husband five years ago, nobody forced me to marry him. I fell in love with him so I was willing to commit my life to him fully until death do us apart, because I love him I happily sacrificed being with anyone else but him. But anyone who has been married for longer than three months knows that I won't always feel like loving my husband. Love is a choice and love is an action. Love is a verb.

I choose to continue to pursue my husband and as a result of that our love blossoms. God loves me every day and every second of my life and I can choose to love him back. I love my husband but no human will ever come close to loving me as much as God loves me. Only God could fill that empty hole on the inside of me that was always longing to be loved unconditionally. God is the only one who can love me with perfect love and the more I spend time in his presence the more I learn to love others the same way that he loves me.

I become a better wife from spending more time with God. I become a better neighbor from spending more time with God. I never want to become so busy or distracted in this life that I forsake spending time with God, my creator. His love is the only love that can satisfy the deepest longings of my soul.

The Gift of Great Service

We are all gifted in different areas. No matter what your gift is I encourage you to put it to use, it will change lives. No human is more important than another, together we change the world. God calls each one of us to be servants, to serve others in love just as Jesus did. It's a great gift to others to serve them with excellence. Putting your gifts to use is practicing generosity.


On Saturday morning I woke up with pain in my neck. I have been sleeping on the same pillow for the last five years and on Saturday my neck was letting me know that I needed to buy a new pillow NOW! I was annoyed that I had to squeeze in a visit to Sleep Country on my Saturday morning since I had a birthday party to organize. Once I arrived at the store my mood completely changed, I was met by an older man who served me with excellence and gave me all the advice I needed to pick the perfect new pillow for my aching neck. We laughed and joked and afterwards I returned home with a new luxurious pillow and a feeling of gratitude for the great service I had received. This morning I didn't really want to get out of bed because my new pillow is super comfortable and sleeping on it feels like a taste of heaven to me. My point is this: whatever you do, do it with excellence! No matter what your gifting is and no matter what job you have, decide to serve people with excellence.


When we commit to giving our best to other people we change people's lives. We love our neighbor when we commit to serving others with excellence, no matter if our client is wealthy or poor. Every time the barista serves me an excellent latte at the coffee shop he/she makes my day. Every time the nurse at the hospital gives me excellent care she makes a huge difference to my week. Every time a stranger gives me a compliment in the street it puts a smile on my face and reminds me of how kind and awesome Canadians are.


Words can not describe how big the difference is between when somebody treats you as an object versus giving you their best effort. I've had doctor's visits that have made me cry because the doctor clearly didn't care about my situation and only saw me as a case number. I've had other doctor's visits that have helped me tremendously, not only because I was given great medical advice but also because I was treated like a human-being, not as an object or case. Whatever you do, do it with excellence and you will change many people's lives in the process. As you change people's lives you also change the world in a positive direction at the same time.

Matt&Nicole

I like watching wedding videos from Forestry Films, they are so beautiful and give me inspiration for the Renewal of Vows ceremony that my husband and I are planning at the moment. It's also wonderful to watch these videos filled with love when most of what we see on the news is darkness; hate, conflict, war, despair and hopelessness. It's not easy to live in this world, but we can't forget that there is love everywhere. Where there is love, there is God.