I think there are times in our human relationships where we have to be reminded of our own weakness to really truly understand just how much God loves us. To be reminded of his infinite and boundless love, and our contrasting finite love. That in fact the only way to thrive is to accept both our imperfection and his perfection at the same time.
By accepting, I don't mean beating ourselves up either. We are often our own worst critics, so it's easy to get stuck in that loop of dwelling on all of our negatives, when God knows we are like this and loves us anyway. In fact, he knew the mistakes we were going to make before we made them, and still loves us.
As much as we would like to be perfectly forgiving, perfectly unflinchingly unaffected by each others idiosyncrasies, it is just not possible. As much as we would like to immediately achieve true unconditional love, our bodies are hardwired with conditions. For us, we can only work a lifetime for glimpses and moments of something akin to God's unconditional love. How perfect is God's love?
Where we look at each other and say, "I love you even though you are xxxx, or have xxxx, or have done...xxxxx." While that is wonderful, and certainly a good start, God looks at us and says, I love you. No caveats. No exceptions. Just, "I love you."
If only more of the world could be filled with this and less strife. What a wonderful world that would be. Until then, we only view it through a glass, darkly.
But what a beautiful glimpse it is, nonetheless.
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It is LML (Love My Life) Monday! Feel free to join the blog hop if you want to share the love.
I think that's why we suffer sometimes or some times in our lives are harder than others. I think it allows us to remember how great His love is for us and it also allows us to enjoy the sweetness when things actually do go right for us. And it's humbling. Right now I'm at a point where my situation could be better but I firmly believe that this was His idea--for me to be in this place so I'm not all that worried about things. I know He's got stuff in the works for me. All I can do is my part.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally I try not to beat myself up too much over things that I've done because I know He will love me anyways and maybe I was allowed to make those mistakes to learn a specific lesson. I think God wants us to enjoy and love the things this life has provided. If we lived a completely pure and good life we haven't learned anything and we haven't enjoyed much of it either.
Great message - especially on a Monday morning when I'm having to force myself to not be cranky about all the little irritating things that are going on. (Yes, even I have to work for the LML sometimes.) Thanks for sharing the smiles!
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