Love
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Love is All Around!
Holy Week. It’s one of my favourite weeks of the year, but also one filled with sadness. It reminds me of Lectio 365’s Lenten Evening Meditation which they title, “Bright Sadness”. I find the week is a microcosm of life with Jesus. We journey with Him, suffer death, wait for something to happen, and then…
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Do you Un-love Yourself? I did.
Hello my dear SUMites brothers and sisters, Lynn Donovan, with you today. I’m feeling extra empathy and compassion for all of us who have walked this road of the unequally yoked. In a prayer session this week, I was praying with a friend, and uncovered an area of unhealed pain that needed the love of…
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Loving when it’s hard
Image courtesy of Tina Phillips at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Ann’s most recent post has lingered in my mind for a few days and I thought I’d reflect a little more on it. If that’s okay? Ian here from a sunny Sydney. We have those between a rock and a hard place moments don’t we? As I think I’ve…
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Born to Be Lovers
Image courtesy of SawBear at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Hi! Ian from wintry Down Under. Love! It tends to be something we compartmentalize, don’t we? It’s how we feel about our spouse and children, our parents and there’s this industry around romance, the books and movies. Strangely, or perhaps not so, it’s actually not talked about a lot.…
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The New Year – Beholding Jesus!
Image courtesy of KAZITAFAHNIZEER at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Happy New Year, dear friends. Wow, 2021 has come upon us and for many of us it hasn’t been a great start with lockdowns, restrictions and political chaos. I’ve been thinking about this post for a few weeks now. In the past few years, I’ve shared my ‘word for…
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Living an Extra (Ordinary) Life
Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles and FreeDigitalPhotos.net Hello, dear friends. Ian from sunny Sydney here. It’s a big few days in America with the election and we all around the world watch on eagerly with prayerful hearts. Recently, I came across a little-known Saint, Alphonsus Rodriguez, who lived in Spain in the 1500s. Rodriguez was…
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THIS MAY STING! Sorry… Ahem, not sorry????
So, ya….. This post may sting. This is an area that I have confronted over and over again throughout my life. How do we walk through life and handle the disappointments, the let downs, the betrayals without slipping down the slippery slope into the dark abyss of bitterness? My friends, I’m telling you, this sly…
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Wrapping Up Our Series on LOVE
Dear friends, Ann here. Today we wrap up our series on love. Here in our SUM community there are many different marriages. Some have spouses who are easy to love; others have extremely challenging situations. But in every relationship – easy or hard – love is not easy. Nor is it simple. And even with…
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When Love Makes You Unpopular
Hi friends, Ann here! As we sit in 1 Corinthians 13, it occurs to me how many facets this little word ‘LOVE’ has. It’s easy to think of love as being kind and patient; it’s easy to think of it as being something like a hug. It is truly that. But there’s another side, and…
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Dealing with a Difficult Person
Hi friends, Ann here! With our coffees at the ready, how about we take a look at this challenging gem today in 1 Corinthians 13: "Love keeps no record of wrongs" (1 Corinthians 13:5, NIV) It is a noble thing to not keep record of wrongs. But do any of you have an ‘extremely difficult…
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3 am Is Very Telling? Do You Get Me? by Lynn Donovan
SUM Nation, I have a “real” question. When you read this passage does you bristle a little? Do you find it difficult to even begin to understand these words and what they are supposed to look like in real life? Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it…
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Clashing Cymbal or Lapping Ocean?
Hi friends, Ann here. Today we begin our series on LOVE, and in a moment I have a light-hearted story to share. But first, speaking of love, I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your loving support after Lynn's announcement this week. This community is pure joy to me and I look…
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Let’s Talk about Love
Image courtesy of Dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Hiya! Ian from Springtime Sydney. Yes, we in the Southern Hemisphere are beginning to experience the blooming of flowers, the tweeting of baby birds (and unwanted attacks while walking by overzealous magpies) and longer days. I was excited to know that Ann is to be leading us over the…
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Learning to Love
Hello, dear Sumites. Ian from Down Under here. In this challenging year, it’s very easy to hop on the blame bandwagon and start griping about everything and anything. Life as we know it has been turned upside down and really the ‘new normal’ is still so uncertain. What will life be like in 2021, which…
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Faith, Hope and Love
Image courtesy of arztsamui at FreeDigitalPhotos.net What a year 2020 has been so far! Ian from wintry Sydney here. Be assured that those of us who don’t live in America are weeping for the people of that great nation and we continue to cry out to God believing for a wave of peace to sweep…
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God Will Ask One Question When You Arrive In Heaven
I’m of the belief that upon arriving at heaven’s gate, Jesus will look into our eyes and ask a single question, “Did you learn to love?”
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Marriage Devotion – Patty Tower
Forgiving My Spouse Forgiveness is not just an act we do for someone else, it is more so an act we do for ourselves. Unforgiveness harbors resentment, bitterness, anger, and negativity. When we harbor these emotions, the act of portraying love faints away. Is that what I want for my marriage? I thought about what…
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The Wonder of Lingering
Image courtesy of Chaiwat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net I arrived at a Prayer Meeting that I was leading and one of the members was already present. This was unusual for him as he typically arrived after the first 30 minutes. But I could sense something in his spirit was bursting. It didn’t take long for my friend…
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Spiritually Mismatched: Been There, Got the Shirt
Ann here! On this blog, we’ve been through many an adventure. Well, today, I'd like to share an insight God gave me about some of the purpose. I hope what I share will spur you on. The insight came in the form of a dream I had in 2016. At the time I was a…
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It’s Worth The Waiting! Chronicles of the Donovan Clan
Twenty-seven years. I won’t look back at the years with longing for what might have been. I look back at the decades and see Jesus in every turn along the journey. I view the Father’s hand of favor and love and I feel the peace of the Holy Spirit as the Trinity lived within.
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Jehovah Perazim – The Lord Who Breaks Through
Hey SUM Family, Tiffany here! I don't know about you but I have really been yearning for breakthrough! It gets me fired up thinking about the breakthrough needed in my life as well as others. I am really struggling to completely detach from my old self. I am not saying that I am not growing,…