1 John 4:9-10

9 By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

World English Bible, public domain

He loves me, he loves me not. A daisy loses its petals one at a time, and the last petal decides the answer. Many of us carry an adult version of that game into how we think about God’s love. Some days it feels sure. Other days it seems to hang on the next petal.

The letter of 1 John was written to early Christians who were trying to understand what love really is. In these two verses the writer points to one thing: God sent his Son into the world so that people might live through him. Then comes the order that changes everything: “not that we loved God, but that he loved us” (1 John 4:10). In this passage, love goes first. It is not the prize at the end of the counting. It is where the story begins.

Picture a child on a summer lawn, grass stains on both knees, pulling petals off a daisy. When the last petal lands on “loves me not,” the child tosses the stem aside and reaches for a fresh flower, hoping for a better answer. You might do something similar without noticing. A week of steady prayer counts as a “loves me.” A missed Sunday, a sharp word to your sister or a long silence where you used to feel close counts as a “loves me not.” Writing it down can show you which petals you have been counting, and how long you have been counting them.

You do not have to settle what you believe before you open your journal. This passage makes a bold claim, and you are free to write about whether it seems true, unlikely or simply too good to trust. Many people of faith have doubted exactly this, sometimes for years, and kept writing and praying through it anyway. Honest doubt on the page is still a kind of conversation. If you want more prompts for that kind of honesty, our doubt prompts are a gentle place to keep going.

Before you write

Try a small way in before the prompts. Draw a plain daisy in the margin of your page, and on each petal write one thing you have quietly believed love depends on: being good, being useful, being certain. Look at it for a moment without fixing anything. Then choose whichever prompt below seems closest to that drawing, and let it be enough to write a few honest sentences.

Journal prompts

  1. Think of the daisy game. What are the petals you count when you wonder whether you are loved, by God or by anyone?

  2. The passage says love was shown before anyone loved back. Where in your life has someone loved you first, before you had done anything to earn it?

  3. Write about a time you felt loved one day and not the next. What changed: what was true, or how you saw yourself?

  4. Verse 10 puts the order plainly: we did not love first, God did. What feels hard to believe about that order, and what feels like relief?

  5. Write an honest prayer that begins with the words 'Some days I am not sure.' Say what you are unsure about, without tidying it up.

  6. You do not have to agree with this passage to write about it. Does it sound true, too good to be true, or simply far away from you right now, and why?

  7. Remember a child you know, or the child you once were. How did that child know they were loved, and did they have to earn it?

  8. This week, notice one moment when you start counting petals again. What could you write or pray instead of pulling the next one?