I used to think love meant staying longer than I should have. Explaining more carefully. Anticipating needs before they were spoken. I called it compassion. It was management. I wasn’t trying to control anyone. I was trying to keep the world from falling apart. Love became leverage — not because I was cruel, but because I was afraid. Afraid of loss. Afraid of rupture. Afraid of what would happen if I stopped trying. Eventually, love stopped feeling like love. It felt like labor. This week, I’m not teaching you how to love better. I’m questioning whether what we call love is actually fear in disguise. When did love become a strategy for staying safe? ... That’s the only question in the Love Workshop: No tools. No healing arc. No relief. Just the truth, undressed. Saturday, February 14th at 9am EST

True Signal: Love grows slowly. It listens. It stays present. Not giving to get. Not performing for approval. Not chasing recognition. Love is spacious. It resonates in the present moment. Distortion: We often call codependency love. It looks like: - Living performatively - Seeking validation and approval - Managing others’ emotions - Confusing busyness with care This “love” is rushed, anxious, controlling — and ultimately manipulative, even when it looks selfless. It abandons what God placed in your heart in order to be needed by others. Calibration: Slow down. Ask yourself honestly: What do I want — beneath what would keep others comfortable or impressed? What desire has God already placed in my heart? Do I believe God delights in fulfilling righteous desire —or do I secretly see Him as withholding, suspicious, or punitive? Sometimes what we call “self-denial” is actually self-righteousness —a refusal to receive, disguised as obedience. God gives according to the heart He Himself formed. He fills plans aligned with truth, not performance. “He gives according to your heart, and fills all your plans.”— Psalm 20:4 (TS2009) We’ll be going deeper into this distinction in the upcoming Love Workshop. Invitation: The Love Workshop📅 Saturday, February 14⏰ 9:00 AM EST We’ll explore: - Self-love as a commandment - Loving others without losing yourself - Why Jesus names love of neighbor as inseparable from love of God - How codependent patterns distort both Jesus doesn’t call us to disappear —He calls us to love from fullness.

I watched a Christmas service and the performance of a Christmas musical play called Pearl of Great Price.. it's Jesus, right? I figured. And then I found myself swept up in emotion as the story wove a tale of a sailor who sought his fortune on the sea, and found, first, the pearl of great price was his life when he almost lost it. When he came back to his family home after many years, humbled and having failed in his search for fortune, he found his father had passed, leaving him a letter. The father wrote before dying that his son was the father's pearl of great price, and the father had spent his life fishing in the sea lanes hoping to find him. And I understood Jesus' words so much better, and God's love, more than I ever had... We are the pearl of great price. God paid everything to have us. And we diminish what He paid - the Son - if we cannot learn to value not only what He created, but then paid everything for: YOU ❤️ You are so LOVED this Christmas!! ✨️

Step 1: The poor in spirit inherits the kingdom. The 8 week study begins with the nature of our powerlessness and why that is GOOD NEWS! Plus, beginning of step 1.