There is always a cost to building intimacy with others. Giving comfort to one who is ill requires time and practical labor (attending to physical needs). Listening to the feelings of a teen or young adult usually involves lost sleep because the deepest conversations take place at night. Buying groceries, cooking meals, making cups of tea, providing snacks requires the sacrifice of time and energy.

Love is indeed a choice, an obedience, a service and a sacrifice, an initiation. But love is also the most powerful source of joy. And it is the means through which God would have us extend His hands, His words, His redemption to our world, within the walls of our homes.

Read more about this in The Lifegiving Home.