ellen5e.com » question http://ellen5e.com Blogging about my 5 E's Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:40:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Being “In Love” http://ellen5e.com/p/501/ http://ellen5e.com/p/501/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:29:17 +0000 ellen5e http://ellen5e.com/?p=501 Inspired by a friend’s question: his exact post is in italics.

Open discussion post: What does it mean to you to be “in love” with someone?

Do you use that term, and if so, what’s the differentiation between loving someone and being in love with someone. For the sake of discussion, let’s presume romantic interest / attraction – so we’re not just comparing “I love my friends” to “I’m in love with my spouse”, per se. ================

The “in love” phrase leads me to think of the romantically interested in pursuing the relationship with the person even deeper. Feeling like you want to spent every minute just being with them.

However, when it comes to the general defining of loving someone I think there are degrees of love. We who speak English [even foreign accented LOL] are at a distinct disadvantage to other foreign languages like Greek which had at least 3 different words to immediately distinguish which degree of love was meant.

Kindness, friendship, caring, brotherly love, empathetic and sympathetic, nurturing, enticing and even passionate and explosive — we are dependent on adjectives to help us define our love, are we?

Nevertheless, IMHO “Love” at it’s utmost is wanting to do absolutely anything in my ability and within the realm of my moral beliefs for another person’s benefit, even if it means that I must sacrifice something of myself in order to bestow that benefit.

My perfect definition may seem like a cop-out to a lot of people, but I truly believe “God IS Love”.  And Jesus Christ lived as the perfect example. So the more closely I adhere to the practice of treating others as God does, the more loving I am.  Obviously, that doesn’t discount that there is an exclusive expression and bonding that I share with my husband that is of a deeper love than any other human. That is a wonderfully unique fulfillment of the “two shall become one” kind of love that God tells of in the Scriptures.

When we were “falling in love” I think we were infatuated with the feelings of drawing closer together as we saw that the other may truly be the life mate that God intended for us. I believe that we enjoyed being “in love” with one another because we were truly thankful for how the very presence of this loved one made us feel — fulfilled, happy, joyful, “on cloud nine”, tingly, understood, attractive, wanted, needed and cared for.

Steve and I recently celebrated twenty-five years of marriage after dating exactly four years prior to our wedding day. I can honestly say that I am still “in love” with this wonderful man. We have not always had the warm fuzzies for each other, each and every second of those years. However, I can absolutely say that I am more in love with him today than I was when I first met him!

When first dating we all have our best foot forward with fine clothes and dress, hair and makeup all set. Yet, to me personally, that is an external show that anyone can see. Much deeper love comes from peeling that aside and allowing the other person to enter into our inner selves. The transparency that we give to a loved one draws us closer together. Yet it is this act of opening ourselve up, that exposes us not only to deep hurt, but the opportunity for greater love.  True sharing of ourselves with another.

After we communicate the acknowledgements of shortcomings, the need for and grantings of forgiveness, and meeting and surpassing trials ; all of these hurdles have helped to grow our love even deeper because we cling to the true love that comes from God.

God promised in His Word that ALL things that come into our life would work together for our good. Not that each thing that comes into our life is guaranteed to be a good thing at the time. But, that we could trust that it would work out to be for the better. God promised that He would NEVER leave nor forsake us. He loves us so much that there is absolutely nothing that any person, thing, or power can do to separate me from His love. And that includes any stupid things that I do myself which might mess things up! Hallelujah!

Therefore, my answer to what does it mean to “be in love,” is that there is no other person which I would want to be with more, to please more, and to know even more. There is no one else that I can trust with my secrets, shortcomings and fears as much as this person who I am deeply in love with. And finally, when I am not able to be with this loved one in person, I ache with the longing to be with them again.

I’D REALLY VALUE YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT THIS <3

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]]> http://ellen5e.com/p/501/feed/ 0 Question of the Week: What’s your mission? http://ellen5e.com/p/question-of-the-week-whats-your-mission/ http://ellen5e.com/p/question-of-the-week-whats-your-mission/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:55:00 +0000 ellen5e http://ellen5e.com/p/question-of-the-week-whats-your-mission/ A new friend of mine is inspiring me to blog more. She has challenged me with a question of the week to take place on Mondays. So here is the first one. “What is your mission?”

I am going to answer that for myself, sharing it with you on this blog, then ask you to either comment with your own answer or giving a link to the answer on your blog. This exercise should challenge our minds and our motivations, while allowing us to share our life experiences and lessons for the benefit of all.

For me, personally, my “Mission” is to become a more Godly woman while sharing the love of God with others. It is a mission of eternal importance. That translates into my NEW IDENTITY … I have an internet and missionary identity of Ellen5e.

That’s it “Ellen(five)’E'”. Ellen is my birth given name. The Five ‘E’s are what God has revealed to me as key to what I am to focus on while using my God-given talents of communication through art, music, photography, word and deed.


The Five E’s are:
1) EXALT God — worshiping, praising, proclaiming God’s goodness
2) EQUIP the Saints — study the Word, full armor of God, learn new skills & pass on what I learn
3) EDIFY the Body — help fulfill needs, build up and encourage
4) EXAMINE myself — strive to keep myself in line with God’s plan
5) EVANGELIZE the World — take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the World.

So I use these five “E”s to gauge whether I am making the best use of my time. It’s sort of like a shortcut to help me remember what I believe are the goals of my earthly mission.

Well, that’s my “mission”. Now, would you be kind enough to share your mission with me? I’d really enjoy hearing what drives you forward.

That is your mission, should you choose to accept it! This message may self destruct in ten seconds… nine… eight ….

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]]> http://ellen5e.com/p/question-of-the-week-whats-your-mission/feed/ 0 Halloween – What Did YOU see? http://ellen5e.com/p/halloween-what-did-you-see/ http://ellen5e.com/p/halloween-what-did-you-see/#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2008 03:55:00 +0000 ellen5e http://ellen5e.com/p/halloween-what-did-you-see/ Did YOU see something scary tonight?? Or did you see the beauty of the families walking from house to house together? I was blessed to have over sixty little visitors at our front door this evening. I was further blessed to see there smiles as the candy was placed into their treat bags. Most popular outfits this year seemed to be Power Rangers and Star Wars characters, a few witches and goblins, the expected Scream, and the most precious princesses and darlingest Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz!!

Though some people think that Christians should not celebrate Halloween, we choose to look at it from the standpoint of getting to give to our neighbors and families. A time of interaction where they actually come to my door and talk to me, even if briefly.

I even got to talk to a very well dressed Devil character tonight about how things in the U.S. may look like he’s winning right now, but the end of the story has already been settled in the Bible. “In the very end, you WILL lose.” A thoughtful laugh was the return from the teen along with a smile. The zombie with him nodded his head in agreement.

To sum it up, the way I see it, this Halloween was a good one spent at home with my husband and a variety of lively visitors.

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