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Forty-three years ago today, a ring was placed on my finger with the inscription 1 John 4:7.

The verse reads,

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

Papa, what does Beloved mean?

• Beloved is a very strong or very deep type of love.  I might say I love pizza, but I would not want to eat pizza for every meal.  I think I would get tired of it after a couple of days. 

So, beloved is like the way you love Grandma.

• Exactly, I love her every day and the longer we are together, the more I love and appreciate her.

Forty-three years is a long time to wear the same ring, do you wear it every day?

• Yes, my wedding ring is a reminder of my promise to love Grandma every day and to love God every day.

Why does the verse say love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God?

• When you read the Bible, you begin to realize how much God loves us.  We are just like the people in the Bible, we do things we know we should not do but God loves us and teaches us to be sorry for our sins. 

That is because God loves us and wants us to be better. 

• Exactly, God loves us and wants us to love him like you love your parents.  And your grandparents.

And we are supposed to love other people just like we love our family.

• That is right, God still loves us even though we do bad things sometimes.  We are supposed to love other people and forgive them when they do bad things sometimes.

God loves us so much, he sent us Jesus.

• Yes, Jesus came to teach us how to love God and to love each other.

Papa, how do you remember to love God and people every day?

• Good question.  I do two things every day.  When I wake up every morning, I say this verse before I get out of bed.  Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  After you say it a few times, it is easy to remember. 

What is the second thing?

• I wear my wedding ring every day to remind me of the promise to love Grandma and God and to show that love to other people.

Papa, can I say the prayer?

• Yes, that would be wonderful.

Prayer:

Thank you God for loving us so much.  Thank you for giving us Jesus and family to love us.  Amen

Thank you Levi and Lyla for helping me with the podcast today and Happy Anniversary to a very special Grandma.

I love you.

               I love you more.

I love you the most!

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community