Sometimes I have to pray for more love, even for the people I love.  Maybe especially more for them…because they are usually the ones that are right here all the time…. easy to take for granted, easy to overlook, and easy to get in under your skin in the most uncomfortable ways.

That’s when I feel the full effects of a sin-shriveled, dried up husk of a heart– something like the Grinch was carrying around, making him miserable without even knowing why.  And that’s what the people you love are good for: getting right in your face and showing you how much love you really need to get through a day, how much your heart must grow to hold the life-giving flow He is calling you to.  It’s one of the reasons He put us in families, to stretch our hearts open and wide, and give us every chance to grow up into Him.

The best thing to do on days like that is hold up your heart to God like an empty cup, and ask with the neediness of a child, “More please…I need more.”  I learned this as a child, in my grandmother’s kitchen, the secret of her wide-open loving heart to everyone she met: just ask for more, because He never runs out and delights in our asking.  She used to sing it at the piano, “The love of God is greater far, than tongue or pen can ever tell…”

The supply is abundant, a river of living water from the cross of Christ.  And when I ask for more, I find my heart expanding, and enough love to fill it, still  plenty to give away.