Perfect Love

"I love you and you are Mine."

Dear Surrey Two,

I'm writing this in the midst of a beautiful realization that I came to understand on my 160th day of serving you. The reason why I want to share this with you is because you have already shared so much with me! So I want to tell you how I saw our 160th day together.

First, it started out with finding out that about 150 of you would be at our February chapter assembly. Truth be told, I was absolutely terrified. Thankfully, the Lord has a funny way of speaking to His children so during the mass before the CA, He spoke to me.

Do not be afraid,

I am with you.

After that, all my reservations, fears and worries started to melt away. Unfortunately, despite the Lord's reassurance, I held on to some negativity. By the time of the CA, all of my worries came rushing back. I was afraid again; afraid that something would go wrong, or I would mess up even though all I wanted to do was make you feel welcomed and special.

All I wanted to do was make you feel loved in every way possible.

But the Lord decided to turn things around. He made sure that things weren't going to go my way, but His Way instead. (Throwback to talk 1 of camp!)

So instead of me making you feel loved, I was loved by you!

Through you, the Lord loved me.

Through you, the Lord loves me.

I was loved through every "hello", smile, hug, laugh, and conversation. Every minute shared with you allowed me to behold God's love for me. So many times, I found myself tearing up at the sheer beauty of my God through you. The Lord revealed Himself to me 150+ times that night. I was truly humbled.

Surrey Two, thank you for reminding me of the love that I am called to give joyfully and to receive humbly.

I only ask that you help me do the same. Even until now, I am scared to love you to my full capacity only because I am afraid that what I have to offer you is not enough.

So I resolve to do this: I will be only an instrument of the Lord so that the love I give you is not from me, but from our Heavenly Father. He is the only one who can give perfect love. For God is Love, and God is enough.

I'll end this off with a challenge for the both us: I challenge you to love more each day and to be open to the love of the Father! Let's begin to recognize how much He loves us in the little and big things!

Yours in Christ,

Ariel.

P.S. I am very grateful for this opportunity to serve and love you in this way! S/O to Angelica for passing this blog down. I'm excited to share my stories and realizations with you! Oh, and I am so sorry if some future posts are too long - I tend to ramble hehe.