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Love Month

Cynthia Hogue • February 12, 2025

What is love? Is it a feeling? Is it a condition? Is it just a word?

Patience, sacrifice, all the things we know love to be, it is and so much more. It is the essence of who God is. It’s a force. A standard. 


Writing this, I am reminded of when I was much younger there was a carton in the local paper by the name of love is. Going through some old paperwork I found some of these that I had cut out and taped in my old high school photo album. I found this one on the web. You can look it up to know the story behind it. When this love that I am writing about is expressed, you will find that is not about you or how you feel. It’s not even about how the one receiving the love feels about you.

We throw the word around so casually but I have learned that love carries great responsibility. It’s one thing to say I love you. It’s another to demonstrate I love you. There are those who can say it and not demonstrate and those who demonstrate and cannot say it. Oftentimes as humans we know the gift that you gave me may say “I love you”, and your mouth not express it. And vice versa. One says it and yet cannot demonstrate it. It’s both. It’s saying and doing.


We speak about and know a lot about agape, eros and phileo love. But there is another type or word for a biblical love that we see represented throughout scripture. 


I was studying some months ago and ran across a word. I didn’t think much about it at the time but then it showed up again and then reading another book I ran across it a third time. I did not understand the depth of the word. The heart depth of the word, yet so much more. Even writing this it is very hard to define and describe. Love is God because God is love. 


HESSED is the word.


It’s understood to be God’s love for people and that’s very easy to say but it means so much more. It’s a reassuring and constant love. A dependable love. A forgiving love. A kind love.  When humanity fails, Hessed remains. When we fail each other Hessed remains. God is the subject and the progenitor of this hessed love. He is the reason for this type of faithful love.  


This hessed love almost seems like a forceful soft love (I know that makes little sense). But once you understand it and put it to practice, you will find that it is a love based on the character of God and his love for his people. You will learn to align and set itself to obey God. This kind of love and devotion is based on a promise that aligns our will with His will. 


When I say forceful, I mean that it’s a love that causes one to come out of themselves and love from a perspective of all that matters is love. This is not the type of love that expects something in return. It is not an if and then type of love. It’s pure. It is the essence of God’s character


For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the Covenant of My Peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee" (Isaiah 54:10)


God never departs from his people. If we fall, he’s there to pick us up. His mercy, his kindness, his faithfulness. His promise to us as individuals, and as a people, never fails.  


The apostle Paul has given us the best definition of love. 


Romans 5:8 - "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this While we were still sinners Christ died for us."


Barnes commentary explains it like this:  While all hope of man's being saved by any plan of his own was thus taken away-- while he was thus lying exposed to Divine justice, and dependent on the mere mercy of God--God provided a plan which met the case, and secured his salvation.


I Hope you are beginning to see this Hessed love. As you move further in your life with Christ, study and then practice this word and let’s watch our lives change so we can give hope to others. 



Happy Valentine’s Day!

My Why

By Cynthia Hogue • September 9, 2024
2 years ago I had cardiac stents inserted for a blocked heart vessel. You may say that’s nothing big , that it happens to many people. And you are right it does. What was once a serious procedure when performed is now a simple outpatient appointment. But having that happen to me has reawakened my passion for living. And as age creeps up I realized there was more time behind me than in front of me. So whatever I was going to do, wanted to do or needed to do. Now was the time. To offset my anxiety, not so much of the aging process but of what this meant to my daily life. I needed to remain balanced. Keep distractions and drama in the low key or nil position. I read a lot and I have a published book, Permission: It’s in You. But I needed to stay active as well, and being active in not just doing things for the sake of doing things, but in things that move you and give you peace and most importantly purpose. I started a garden. A friend built me some raised beds and thus a new story and new revelations of life began I would come home from work and hit the beds. Pouring soil, weeding and planting and then harvesting. It felt like home. The garden of my grandmother. At the end of the day I could hardly wait until the next morning to see what had happened overnight. I dried herbs and canned vegetables until they no longer produced. And in that i remembered how my grandmother would use herbs and old remedies to heal. And as I researched and then took some informational classes I realized, THIS IS IT. This is home. I wanted to grow vegetables and herbs and then use this produce to make oils and lotions that helped our skin. As well as food for our table. As I researched and experimented with different oils and herbs I found that infused oils last much longer on my skin. And As we age, of course our skin ages and along with perimenopause and menopause we experience hormonal changes . Add that to skin dryness, skin spots, ashy skin color, the inevitable environmental exposure and the fact that our skin builds up dead skin cells as is natures course. It’s natural that man’s largest organ gets all the wear and tear and little care. I’ve never worn a lot of makeup at any time but I could see the subtle changes. The garden and the herbs gave me later grace oils. Its is so confirming to plant a seed see the land give back a harvest and then we are able to use this harvest for our good. Just as those who came before us and to those who will come after us please remember that We have been given everything that we need to survive and thrive in this world. Many things bring us home. It can be a thought, a smell or a feeling. Home is not just a house on a perfect piece of property . it is a place that is deep in our soul. It’s a place we can go to settle ourselves and maybe to find ourselves. To settle our minds and our hearts. To talk and then to listen for the answer. Home is a place of giving and receiving. A place where a part of you lives and every now and then needs to be reunited. After our mother’s womb , it’s where we began and Where we were nurtured and cared for. It remains home. It’s the place you return to in hopes of finding what was lost. It may not happen to you today or tomorrow but it will happen. And if you can’t travel there physically our mind will always thinking home. Our health is tied to our home , our lifestyle and genetics. Some of it we can control. Some not so much. The name latter Grace is how God ‘s Word never fails us and is a constant reminder to me that latter represents his word in action and that Grace has been given to us all You will find me at HOME. In my garden Where I am honored to bring you Latter Grace Oils & Balms.

Let's Talk Herbalism...

By Cynthia Hogue • September 9, 2024
According to the American herbalists guild, herbal medicine is the art and science of using plants to support health and wellness. It’s called by many names: Traditional Medicine, folk medicine, botanical medicine, root medicine, phototherapy, herbal healing and holistic healing. Some simply call it gardening. Becoming one with nature. Almost every culture has its own plant healing methods and no culture owns the practices . They all share a common thread; HEALING. These methods have such a place in antiquity and are so revered they have been labeled as unsafe and false medicine. Yet we go back to those methods time and time again because “they work”. The teachings and knowledge are as old as time and many birthed from the African continent. These practices have been verbally handed down and transmitted to other countries through the immigration of people as they began to filter out to populate this vast world and to this western country by way of slavery and oral tradition. From this We have lost a significant amount of knowledge. One needs to study each culture to understand the full story and impact of these practices . Some are steeped in religion. Some seem to be clothed in dark magic. Some in the open light. Some in just the pure beauty of healing and the reason God gave us plants for the healing of our bodies and mind. It’s not romantic fantasy and you don’t just say, I’m a herbalist, or I’m a healer without some evidence. It takes time and patience. It takes having a knowledge of nature, having a sense and knowledge of how the body works and that same sense of knowing that the body itself is able to communicate to us what it needs. It takes knowledge of each plant or herb and its cellular content. To some it’s a gift, to others it’s learned from being and doing. For every one thing you learn there are 10 more things to learn. It’s practice and observation. It’s love and understanding. It’s Gods gift to mankind as stated in the passages below:.
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