What is love?

We think romantic comedies, candle-lit dinners and giddy feelings. But love is so much more!

Feelings come and go, but love based on a commitment to love people that may not love us or to serve and help those that can never do anything back… that’s real love. It’s unconditional, self-sacrificing and giving without expecting something in return.

It takes a life to learn to grow this kind of love; it’s hard work! 

One way to check where we are at with learning to love is to look at a passage that I absolutely LOVE:

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
1 Cor 13: 4-7

SO HERE IS THE TEST: Fill in your own name every time it mentions ‘love’ and then see if it’s true or not:

_____ is patient and kind.
_____ is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.does not demand its own way.
_____ is not irritable, and
_____ keeps no record of being wronged.
_____ does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
_____ never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

In the first week of starting an FB page for Missionista, I had more and more ‘likes’ each day…it was exciting and mind-blowing! But then after the second week was over it went much slower… now it has been stagnant at 92 ‘likes’ for a while.

Then I realized: I’m being absolutely RIDICULOUS!

92 people that like the idea of ‘Missionista’ and who desire to make a difference with their lives and that long for encouragement to keep going.. that’s amazing! I should rejoice instead of whine!

Why do we always think that unless we have a whole lot of people ‘liking’ us we can’t do what we are supposed to do? Even on a small level like Facebook: admit it- we want as many ‘likes’ as possible, right? Or am I the only one?

When it comes to making a difference, we often tend to think that unless someone has a platform and large crowds that will be moved into action, no real difference can be made?

It’s stupid. It really is.

God blesses those who do not care who gets the credit.

Real heroes are the unseen ones.

It’s not about us… it’s not about me. It’s not even about Missionista or anything like that.

The ‘idea’ of Missionista is someone that selflessly helps other people, whose only concern is that others would be better because we have been a part of their lives. It’s that easy. That simple.

I, the person writing this, need to learn to be a Missionista just as much as anyone else. Sometimes I read old posts and I think: “Wow! I still need so much growth in that area!!” Somehow my own posts keep challenging and holding up a mirror to myself. And I’m happy it does!

Conclusion of this rant: I have a lot to learn!  

Enough about me! Back to work ;)

Ever felt discouraged and defeated? Perhaps after a failure, a mistake, a disappointment or just downright un-luck? It stinks! Discouragement is a sucky feeling that really brings down your mood, your energy and productivity.

The interesting thing is that discouragement is a feeling and feelings are not really all that reliable.

What do I mean?

Well, it’s like being bored. It’s a feeling. It might be real. It might be perceived. What’s funny is that as soon as something happens to you that you love, the boredom is gone in an instant! For example:

* you get a call from someone you like
* you find out that a movie you’ve been dying to see is on TV
* you get a new book in the mail that you’ve been looking forward to read

… all of a sudden you get a jolt of energy and your ‘boredom’ is completely gone!! See how unreliable a feeling can be?

It’s the same with discouragement.

Discouragement is just a feeling. And feelings, like the ebb and flow of the ocean, come and go. You cannot rely on them. What you can rely on is God’s love for you, His strength in helping you move forward with your mission and His wisdom to tell you what to do next.

Your defeated feeling may have a really good cause and may be very real. But it is your choice whether or not you are going to let the discouragement eat away at you.

What you need to do is just do the next thing. Just take one step and move against your feeling of discouragement. Giving into the feeling will only make it worse!

Persistence is the determination to never, never let your energy be drained by discouragement.

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

 If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

 If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

 If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa

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Missionista has now gotten a Facebook Account!!
Go on over and hit ‘like’ and you’ll get all the latest updates on posts, tweets, videos and other fun stuff, plus you can share posts with friends that you want to inspire to also become Missionistas!

Spread the word: http://www.facebook.com/Missionista.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb1jh-Wv2wg

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed & redeemed; never throw out anyone -Audrey Hepburn

More beautiful than her appearance and her style, was Audrey’s heart for children in need. What I like about the pictures below is that you see that she spends a lot of time actually talking and interacting with people. She does not just pass out stuff to people and take some quick pictures. She comes down to the level of these kids, sits with them and spends time with them.

LOVE is spelled TIME and ATTENTION.

We don’t always see or feel the sun and so we say things like ‘the sun comes up’ and ‘the sun goes down’.

It’s not true though. That’s just our personal perspective.

The sun is always there; it never moves or leaves.

Similarly, we don’t always experience God’s presence so we say things like ‘God shows up’ and ‘God is hiding’.

It’s not true though. That’s just our personal perspective.

God is always there; He never moves or leaves.

Even when we don’t see, feel or experience the warmth of the sun; she is still shining.

Even when we don’t see, feel or experience the warmth of God’s love; He still loves us unconditionally!

What a great comfort it is to know there are limitations to our perspectives and we are often wrong about them!

The difficult things people go through are like rivers- there is a lot going on underneath the surface that we cannot see.
We can shout from the sidelines “Hey, just swim over here…” but don’t you think someone would have already tried that? No one swims in misery because they like to.
Instead, the only way for us to really help people is to dive into the water with them… To come close and to try to see if we can look under the water of what is going on. Perhaps their foot is stuck or the current is just too intense to swim against it and someone needs to drift with it for a while until a shore can be reached.
Are we willing to get wet and jump in or are we going to stand on the sidelines?