"I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19
As I have said many times before I find great strength and power from music and I listen to it all the time. Especially Christian music. It is a powerful influence in my life and always has been.
This song actually started playing when I was reading Day 7's devotional and it was one of those divine moments where it all came together in the right time :)
"Autism came into our lives. God expects to be glorified with our testimony. It is an awesome thought to think God thinks so highly of our parenting skills! He knows we could handle this with His help...or He never would have allowed autism in." (Medina 29)
Having a Child with ASD teaches you so much about unconditional love. I think being a parent in general teaches you unconditional love but when you have a child with special needs the unconditional love does not always feel like it is being returned. We know deep down inside that our child loves and appreciates us but the outward expression of it is lost to us. I think it is a great example of the love between Christ and his lost sheep. He never stops loving us, no matter what we have done or how little we show our love for him. He loves us deeper and stronger than we could ever imagine and he only longs for us to love and long for him like he does for us. It is an amazing picture of love!
"Our children have taught us to love more deeply. Our children are teaching us to love like Christ loves. Our children are teaching us to never give up. Our children are teaching us love does indeed surpass knowledge." (Medina 30)
When I was trying to define this love for myself in my time of prayer, I was reminded of how love was defined by the pastor who married my Husband and I. It is "Agape" love. The Greeks have different words for love (sexual love, friendship love and Christ-like love) used in the bible but when translated to English we only have one word to describe all types of love. When we strive to love like Christ loves us we are looking for "Agape" love.
When googling the best definition of Agape love this is what I found...
"Agape love - unconditional love that is always giving and impossible to take or be a taker. It devotes total commitment to seek your highest best no matter how anyone may respond. This form of love is totally selfless and does not change whether the love given is returned or not. This is the original and only true form of love."
"Agape love is seeing the answer and sharing that with whoever is seeing or experiencing the problem.
Agape love is never judgmental and is eternally patient with any thing that must be learned.
Agape love is totally without demands or requirements.
Agape love is total truth in that it does not change, no matter what appears to change around it.
Agape love knows not of time since time does not exist in heaven.
Agape love is unconditional forgiveness for any event because agape love transcends the concept of needing forgiveness in that it knows we are simply misguided and therefore our actions are not held against us in the first place."
(both passages are from http://www.ezilon.com/articles/articles/7675/1/God-is-Agape-Love)
These descriptions better describe my love for my children and the love I feel from Christ then I ever could. It is a comfort everyday to know I am loved that unconditionally and I only hope that even with the madness of our lives my little Monkey and Peanut know I love them that much too!
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