Don’t Forget To Love…
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails… ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
In our recovery program, we have talked endlessly about forgiveness because it’s a major key in healing. We have talked about how to trust others when we’ve been hurt multiple times. And though we talk about love, sometimes I think we must talk about it more.
Love can be difficult for some people to give because of what they’ve been through in life. Hurt can cause us to hold people at an arm’s length and not allow them to get close to us out of fear of being hurt again. If you are hurt enough and never fully resolve the issue with others or within yourself, you may see every person or situation through the eyes of scrutiny and a lack of trust, putting everything and everyone under a microscope. The problem with this is the possibility of not allowing someone to grow or failing to see any good that person may be trying to do.
When we look at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, we see how God loves. This scripture is something we all must repeat every day to ourselves. This doesn’t mean we allow people to continue doing wrong to us. Even God has boundaries, so it’s ok if we have to draw that boundary line or remove someone out of our life if they refuse to change and continue to harm us. What it does mean is we are to remember how God’s love is with us and we must offer the same to others. And yes, even to the unlovable as we can be just as unlovable at times. We can be impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, proud, dishonoring to others, self-seeking, easily angered, keeping our own record of wrongs done to us. We can even delight in some evil though in our mind we might not think it’s evil, and not always rejoice in the truth.
Take some time to seek God and ask Him where you have failed to love as He loves. Sometimes we have to put ourselves under a microscope to see what’s really going on in our heart.
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ~ Psalm 139:23-24