Love.

My sister Courtney is six years older than me. My mom says that when I was born, Courtney thought I was her very own, real-life baby doll. We would play dress up, sing songs at the top of our lungs, pick on our brothers, laugh together ... all the normal sister stuff :) She loved me, and I thought she was the best thing since sliced bread.

I was five the first time she spent the night at someone else's house. I wore one of her t-shirts to bed and cried myself to sleep. I colored her so many pictures that they surrounded the walls of the bedroom we shared. For real! The first time she came home from college, she surprised me at my seventh grade volleyball practice and I was so happy, I cried, in front of all my friends. We have been through thick and thin. We are sisters and no one can take her place.

Don't get me wrong, we have definitely had our battles! What sisters haven't? But valentine's day is about the love, so the battles will have to be for another day :) When we were really young, we shared a room and one night before bed I remember asking Courtney how much she loved me. I must have been around six years old and she sat there for a while and said "If every car in the world was a heart, that's how much I love you."

That little phrase sure stuck in my head and I still sometimes tell people that I love, just how much, in hearts. Words are a powerful thing and just one sentence from someone can alter your course and even control your thoughts or mood. I thought today, "when's the last time I asked God how much he loved me? How much would one sentence from him change me and stick with me?" I know that one word or sentence from the Father can make an impact that a person is not even able to put into words. I know it has happened to me before. I try to tell someone else... and words are not enough to express how much it meant to me, or changed me. Love and words are powerful things.

I really believe God shows his love for us each day in the small, simple things. Ask God to show you all the ways he has been showing you his love and just how much he loves you. He is a good God, he lavishes us with love. And His words will change you forever.

1 John 3:1
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

Be blessed today and know that you are loved more than anything.