MID WEEK MOTIVATION - LOVE "Beyond Valentine's Day: Embracing Everyday Love”

You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven Mississippi.

Here's your hosts Mark Lewis, david Burgess and Pastor Grant Stegall.

Good morning and welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for February the 12th, here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis and I'm Laura Ulrich.

We've got Laura with us this morning.

We hope this program can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond.

Be sure to subscribe and share our link on social media.

We always open the podcast with events and things.

We want you to know all of the information and I never say this, but we don't have as much time on Sunday mornings during a service to go in-depth into some of this calendar information.

So we wanted to introduce you to a lot of the events we have coming up because we're excited about the programming and we work hard on it here at DeSoto Hills.

So today is the 12th.

We've obviously got Valentine's coming up this weekend.

We have a missions event coming up quickly on the 22nd and you said that that's at Batesville FBC Batesville.

What is that?

Yeah, so that's Missions Madness and it's at FBC Batesville on Saturday, February 22nd so not too long from now and it is a kids missions event for first through sixth graders and parents, if they want to come, and it's just kind of an all day thing down there where we go and we learn about different missions.

This year they're doing more missions within the United States and we go to different rooms throughout the church and learn about the different states and their missionaries there and kind of what they do, their customs and things, Because I guess you know different states have different ways of doing things, even in the United States.

So that's kind of what we do there and I've just learned about missionaries and it's very hands on and food there's a lunch is provided, so food is always good and games and such things.

So it's lots of fun and it'll take your kids away for a whole day on Saturday.

So if people are interested in this, what do they need to do to sign up?

At this point just talk to me and I'll see if I can get you in the deadline passed on February 6th.

But that's okay because usually they have extra spots.

Wonderful, so definitely take advantage of that.

We also have the preteen retreat coming up the following weekend, on the 28th, and then is it March 1st.

It hits March 1st, so the 28th and the 1st, which is a Friday, saturday event.

This is basically Disciple Now for our older children.

What are the grades for that?

Okay, it's fifth and sixth grade and it's going to start, I believe, at 5 o'clock on February the 28th and then it'll be over probably around 11 on that Saturday morning before lunch.

So it's from like 5 to 10, 10.30 on that Friday night and then from about 9 to 11 on Saturday.

And if you're not familiar with this event, you've seen some video content possibly that we've done from it in the past and we will post some of that stuff as we are announcing it in the MPC on Sunday mornings.

But we basically will theme out the treehouse somewhat really neat and turn the lights off, and it's really cool.

The kids will eat a meal up there on Friday night in the themed out room, we play games, they get to visit and fellowship.

We typically do a really fun event of some sort on Friday night we're still working out all the details of that and then the band plays.

We have the VBS band up there for the children, which is a lot of fun.

We have some fantastic musicians that show up and lead them in worship and then we have a fantastic guest speaker that always comes and brings the word for the weekend.

It's a great, great event.

If you haven't signed your child up for that yet, please, please, please, take advantage of that.

It is an incredible weekend and a deadline.

Let's put the deadline because I want to know they'll ask me when's the last day to sign up.

The last day is february the 23rd, 4th, 3rd, whatever that sunday the 23rd sunday head yes, the sunday before is going to be the last day to sign up for that event, so, and you sign up online.

Um, it's super easy.

And um, yeah, I hope you come as fifth and sixth graders.

It's fun, we have a good time, it's going to be the last day to sign up for that event and you can sign up online.

It's super easy and, yeah, I hope you come.

It's fifth and sixth graders, it's fun, we have a good time, make new friends, all kinds of stuff.

Absolutely, and I say it every week.

We have a complete year calendar available through June 25.

You can grab one on Sunday mornings at our welcome desk in the Grand Hall.

Okay, if you didn't catch on, since Valentine's Day is coming up, that's sort of our theme for the podcast.

Today, stores started shoveling the stuff for Valentine's Day on the shelves before Christmas was over this year.

Laura.

I went into Kroger around Christmas and Christmas Day had not come yet.

This was probably like the 22nd, 23rd, and I ran straight into their little holiday aisle and it was full of Valentines.

They had already switched over to Valentine's Day.

It's like I feel like sometimes like it's a money grab holiday?

Oh yeah, of course it is.

Now Riley's sitting in here.

Do they allow y'all to have the stuff at school, your school, to get valentine's stuff at your?

school.

Yeah, they even have candy grams, all candy grams.

But can can parents and stuff outside people send stuff into the school?

I think so really, at the high schools, we, we shut all that down because oh it's not fun.

Well, we get.

We get trucks and trucks and trucks of balloons and flowers.

And then the kids have to walk around the halls with all that stuff, Because all of the teenage boys and stuff feel like if they don't get it for the girl they're going to get in trouble and they will.

And they want to do it at school because they want to show it off.

They want to show off whatever has been given.

And the girls want to show off what they got Correct.

At Horn Lake is unbelievable.

Like they have to shut it down because we don't have space in the halls for all the stuff.

I'm telling you it's like a game.

It's how big of a teddy bear can I get?

How many desks will this thing?

take up, and then the poor girl has to tote around all day long.

With the biggest smile on her face ever, or the boy totes it around behind her, is what ends up happening.

Now.

What?

What is y'all's typical valentine's day?

Look like I will say, in the lewis house we stay away from the restaurants because it's like just crazy.

So me and jim will typically go out like a few days before, maybe a few days after, and we'll just have a nice, a really nice meal at home that night.

If it lands on a weeknight that we can, I'd say that.

So what's y'all's normal?

routine.

That's what we do.

We don't really make a big to-do out of valentine's.

Like we'll eat at home, we may.

Brandon will probably cook steak and our kids like steak and potatoes, and so he'll probably cook that for us.

And then, yeah, we may go out, brandon and I may go out, you know, like you said, a few days later, kind of after the crowd has died down and we can actually get in somewhere without waiting two hours.

But Valentine's is nice, but it's just not that big of a to-do in our family.

I got you.

Okay.

We did this segment a few weeks ago with David and I didn't warn you about this one ahead of time.

Oh great, right, laura gets nervous about it.

We call this new segment Table Topics.

Okay, Table Topics are just random question cards designed for families to chat around the meal table.

Have you ever seen these?

Oh yeah, we've done these at our house.

They're pretty fun.

They're incredible, and so I would definitely encourage all of our listeners.

If you're looking for some way to get your family at the table and maybe away from the devices, this is a really good way to do it.

You can get these cubes and they're called Table Topics on Amazon.

Everyone's favorite shopping yes.

Okay, which airline do you think is best?

You've done some flying through the years A little bit.

I'd go with Southwest, southwest.

Unlike others, I like to pick my seat, but I will pay extra to get the priority choice Right, absolutely Every time.

Yes, my understanding is Delta is absolutely the best.

They must also be the most expensive.

It's a possibility Because I never can grab a Delta flight.

I can't bring myself to buy a Delta flight after seeing all of the prices.

The last flight I took was to Dallas and Dallas is an American airline city, so I ended up having to fly American and it was the worst experience flying experience I've had.

Oh no, Sorry, American Airlines.

They're always delayed.

They delay all the time.

I mean we're going from Memphis to Dallas.

Their hub.

It was delayed.

And they're delayed to get to their hub because they said they were down a person.

There's something about they're supposed to.

Is it Delta that, like, is supposed to pay you money if they delay your flight or something?

It's awful, I don't know, it's awful.

I would have to agree with you.

I think Southwest is probably the best experience I've had of all of them.

Spirit is iffy every time.

Every time I've flown Spirit, it's been iffy, all right.

What's the best movie?

Villain of all time.

Oh, my goodness Of all time.

That goodness of all time.

That is a hard question.

I know it's a lot of them.

Uh, there are a lot I'm trying to think of like a disney villain, um maleficent yeah, but since it's my choice, ah, lord Voldemort.

Riley's over in the corner while we're recording today.

Yes, she is definitely a big Harry Potter fan.

I think my favorite villain of all time may be the Joker.

I was always a fan of Batman in the comics oh, that's a good one and the Joker especially after seeing Heath Ledger's performance.

Yeah, yeah, that's a pretty terrifying villain to think about.

He did a good job on that one.

Yes, jack Nicholson, I don't know, it's hard to beat.

Well see, that's the nostalgia coming out, just because the Tim Burton film is like the nostalgia of the first really cool Batman movie, but as far as a well-done performance, something that just terrified you, I would say it would be Heath Ledger's.

All right, these are two questions that I asked David a few weeks ago, and so I pulled them back out because I wanted to ask you what fashion trend you followed when you were growing up.

That was cool then and you look back now and think that it was ridiculous.

I'll tell you rolled jeans.

oh, like tight, roll, tight, rolling the jeans all I thought that was coming back actually, but maybe not, hopefully not, I don't know, but it was cool, like if you could do it.

You were in, like if you could pull it off.

You were in what?

okay, so I would say that, uh, when I was in like elementary school, so like the 80s, we wore these jogging suits and they were like neon colored, yes, and the pants and the jacket matched that dipped into the early 90s did it okay.

So I had like neon pink, was one out of hot pink and like a teal one.

Oh yes, r Riley's looking at me like I'm crazy and yeah, they were pretty awesome at the time, but now I don't know why.

But it was like that swishy material, like it wasn't like soft or it was real swishy and that was just the thing to do.

Yep, all right, last one.

What's your favorite fast food meal?

Chick-fil-a, it's hard to beat.

Yeah, and that is Table Topics.

We'll definitely bring back some Table Topics in future podcasts.

They are lots of fun.

We're now going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the midweek moment, All right, so Valentine's Day is coming up in just a couple days and you know, of course, what do you talk about on the midweek moment close to Valentine's Day, except for love.

However, I will have to say this Growing up well, actually in my young adult years as a single lady, I despised Valentine's Day.

With everything in me, I despised it.

I talked about the high school earlier, the kids who have somebody come in beaming yes and those that don't Death.

I had a kid two years ago come in my room and literally fall out on my floor on his back and I don't know if he was just being overly dramatic.

But he did not move for 10 minutes and we had to be like, dude, you've got to get up.

Why was he laying there?

Because he had nobody.

He was depressed and he wanted everybody to know.

I'm just saying.

It's ridiculous.

It's all a money making scheme.

Yes, yeah, you pay five dollars for a card Anyway.

So I didn't like Valentine's Day.

It was the worst holiday ever.

In fact, I think there were some times where I even wore all black on Valentine's Day.

So I just decided I just didn't like it.

So, yeah, moving on.

So once you find that significant other or you get married, valentine's Day takes on a whole new.

You just kind of look at it differently.

You begin to appreciate it a little bit.

However, I said my family.

We don't really do Valentine's Day real big because I show them I love them throughout the year.

That's right.

Isn't that sweet.

I love it.

That's the Sunday School answer.

It is and it's the truth.

It is the truth, but sometimes that's not always easy to do.

Like I love them, but sometimes I don't really like them, right?

All right, so that's what we're going to talk about today the love of God and how we can be appreciative of Valentine's Day even if you don't like the holiday.

If there's some single folks out there listening and they're like this is terrible, I don't want to listen to this.

Don't turn us off, because I think you'll get something out of it, maybe, hopefully.

Alright.

So Valentine's Day, yes, we give cards and chocolates and flowers and large teddy bears that take up lots of room at the schoolhouse and we give gifts to those that we care about, and it's great.

Sometimes the gifts are small, sometimes they're big, sometimes you know they're gone in five minutes if it's a chocolate bar at my house, or other times they last longer, but anyway, but as a family, if you think about your family for a minute, whether it's your immediate family, extended family, people that you don't talk to, but once a year, it's important to remember.

Love goes beyond what we can give or receive.

My kids and they're probably not the only ones in the world have this problem of they're not very appreciative when they get gifts throughout the year because they get so much stuff throughout the year and when they get something from us you you know it's not always special, right, right, on their birthdays it's special.

Christmas is special, but other times they're like well thanks, and then they're done with it.

So we have decided in our family that, instead of buying them so many things, that something we can do to show love to them is to, we call it like, be in their world for a little while.

Like, nolan likes to play Legos and we all do, actually and so we get together and we play.

You ready for this Lego Masters at our house.

I love it Absolutely.

It's super fun and he loves it because he gets to spend time with us and doing something he wants to do.

Addison is 11.

And so sometimes it's tricky to figure out what she wants to do.

Addison is, you know, 11.

And so sometimes it's tricky to figure out what she wants to do.

But whatever it is, you know we take time and we we play in her world for a little while.

So in that sense, to us it's much more important to show people that you love them by spending time with them than it is to buy them stuff.

Now, your kids may be the complete opposite.

I don't know, mark, I don't know about yours, but some kids may thrive on you buying stuff for them and if they do, good luck to you.

If that's your children, it's not ours.

So, but talking about love and looking at God's love for us, his love is the greatest love that we can experience, and God doesn't buy things for us.

I don't think that's even in the Bible about God going and spending $100 to buy us something, but his love is unfailing, unconditional and eternal, and he showed us his love in the most powerful way when he sent his son, jesus, to live, die and rise.

For us, this is a love that doesn't depend on being perfect, kind or deserving because, well, we'd all fall short of that but it's a love that's always there, no matter what.

We all know that showing love to others isn't always easy Some days at least in my family.

It's a choice that we have to make and we make that choice to show up to others simply because God loves us.

You know, some days I might want to string my little boy, who I love dearly, up by his toenails, but I love him because he's a gift from God and because God loves us.

And Brandon and I tell our kids often that we will always love you.

But we might not like the choices you're making right now, and so we want them to understand that, hey, no matter what you do, we're going to love you.

We don't approve of what you're doing, perhaps at this very moment, but that doesn't mean we don't love you.

And I think that sometimes, when God looks at us especially at me, since I'll just be transparent he says hey, laura, I love you more than you will ever understand, but I don't really like the choices you're making today, in this moment.

So what can we do to fix that?

How can we fix that?

Because if God's love for me was dependent on the choices I make each day, I'd be in trouble, and I think we all would be in trouble, because none of us are perfect, and if we try to attain perfection, we're going to fall short and we're going to wear ourselves out every time.

I'm so thankful that, no matter the choices I make, that God loves me as well, really more today.

Well, no, let me think about this for a minute that God loves me as much as he ever will, right at this very moment I don't know if that makes sense to all of our listeners, because I had to think about it for a second but that God's love for me and one.

It doesn't change, it's unconditional, it's unchanging, and he loves me as much right now as he will ever love me, which is way more than I could ever understand.

And so I think, when we look at the life of Jesus throughout scripture, that we can see a perfect picture of what that love looks like, even to the point of dying for us, because, as we know, jesus was perfect, but yet God sent him to earth to die, and because he loves us.

And so that's really, if you really think about that, it's really kind of hard to get your mind wrapped around it because we're humans and our minds don't think like that.

And so, as we celebrate Valentine's Day today or in the next couple of days if you celebrate today, maybe you can get a steak and not wait for three hours but as we celebrate Valentine's Day, or even if you don't like Valentine's Day, use Valentine's Day as a day to just thank God for loving you and then talk about, maybe with your family or friends or the people who are close to you in your life, talk about ways that you can share that love of God with people around you, especially in our families, when it's hard to love people sometimes, because, remember, love is patient and kind and forgiving.

It means showing respect, being slow to anger and always seeking to help others, just like Jesus did for us.

I think this week would be a fantastic week to do some random acts of kindness for people.

I like it and we talk about that.

We talk about that with our children here at church quite a bit and through the week of VBS we always encourage them to do that, but this is definitely a week to help somebody out at the grocery store.

If you see somebody who's struggling to load their groceries into their car, just small, random acts of kindness they will go a long, long way.

Thanks for listening.

If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here on Sunday mornings.

You can catch our services online at desotahillscom For all of our church family.

We love you.

We'll see you back here early next Wednesday morning.

God bless, we love you.

We'll see you back here early next Wednesday morning.

God bless, this has been your midweek motivation.

We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings.

Our services are at 9 and 1030 am.