I've heard many times that love can see you through. Love conquers all. Love is all you need. So... What happens when love gets tired? What happens when you are tired of covering sins with mountains of love? What happens when you love someone that continually hurts you? Can love run out? I've asked myself that so many times. How can someone take constant "abuse" and still love? The verse comes to mind, 1 Corinthians 13:4&7 where it talks of charity or love suffering long and endures all things. If that's the case, than doesn't that answer the question?
You may think it sounds feeble to reference the Bible or even a way to justify my thoughts but hang with me for a minute. So many times I think about God's love towards His children and the love I have towards my own. How would I answer those questions I asked above if I view it from the love of a mother? Do we only display unconditional love for our children and not for our spouse, co-workers, friends and family? Think about how God created Eden. Everything was perfect. You couldn't have asked for anything better or more. Do you know what happened? They wanted the one thing they couldn't have and their perfect world was gone. What about our kids? We give them everything. We give them a home, clothes, food, love, discipline, schooling, college and much, much more. Are they satisfied? Do they REALLY appreciate what is given to them? Then, why do we love them still?
I have this working theory about our spouses. We start dating and we feel like they are the answers to the questions we have. We feel that they are the "ying" to our "yang" and then it happens. You've been married for a little while and they do that thing. You know the thing that makes your hair stand on end? Some days you can brush it off and others you feel like you will come unglued. You may have a little crack in your armor and they know exactly where it is and constantly poke at it causing the crack to get bigger and bigger. That amazing love you have for them starts getting depleted. Then, one day before you realized what happened, you don't even like each other much less love each other. The love that conquered all is failing you. What do you do? Does this mean that you have "fallen out" of love? Does this mean imminent divorce?
I believe love is a choice. God didn't have to create us. He chose to. He chose to love His creation. He was selfless and that is what love is. Love sacrifices but because it is love, it doesn't feel as if it a sacrifice. I believe that is because God IS love (1 John 4:8). Therefore HIS love is perfect! Why does it seem that we can't cover those things with our own love? 1 John 4:12 says His love is perfected in us. Perfected means to bring to completion. We are a work in progress. We are incomplete. Only through God can we love like that. Where we are lacking, He is there. Where we struggle, He is the strength at the end of us to help us to keep going. You may think that God is only for weak people. Let me assure you that it takes a strong person to admit that they NEED Him. It takes a lot more for me to admit that I am lacking than it does for me to try to fix everything and everyone around me.
Our love may get tired. We may get tired of being hurt over and over and over again and still loving the one that does the hurting but His love never tires. His love covers it all. If we utilize His strength and depend on HIM, our love will never tire because it is His love that will come through us. Think of this:
Did you know that the moon doesn't shine without the sun? The moon reflects the sun and shines on us all. Did you know that the moon only reflects in between 3 and 12% of the sunlight that hits it? Think about how bright the sun can be. Now, compare the moon to the sun. God is the sun and we are the moon. Do you see the difference? The moon has no significance unless the sun shines on it. It lights up the night sometimes but it also goes through phases. Sometimes the moon is closer to the one that is shines on and sometimes it is farther away. The moon is like a mirror, albeit not a clear one, that reflects the sun and shares that light with the earth.
When your love is tired, are you reflecting the Son like you should be? How close are you to the ones you should be sharing your light with? What phase are you going through? We all go through phases, just as the moon goes through its phases. John 17:22 & 23, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as though hast loved me."
We may get tired of the hurt, rejection or feeling like we are on repeat all the time but if we use the light/love that He gives us, we will not fail or falter.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Monday, April 4, 2016
JUST BREATHE
I LOVE to write. I LOVE to talk to people too. When I write, I feel like someone else is on the other side of this screen that is drinking in what I am saying and will no longer feel alone in their struggle or getting a laugh at what I am saying. When I cannot sort through my emotions, I rarely talk about what it going on in my mind. If I do, I end up talking about things that has nothing to do with anything and rambling on about something completely insignificant. If I am struggling with confusion and anger and I speak or write, it will not be in the right spirit and I do not want to lead someone to think something that is incorrect about my life or about what action to take in their own. Therefore, I have not been as faithful in my blogging as I want to be. Sometimes, the struggle is currently going on or we are on the other side of it and it is too fresh. I want those of you that enjoy my blogs to continue to do so and not feel the need to have me committed.
I'm working on a project for an event coming up and in that work, I have been doing a little research on needing God DAILY. I believe that God is now trying me out to see if I believe what I say I believe. This week, I will be married for 10 months. To those of you that have been married for 20 years plus years, I can almost hear you chuckle as I say how thankful I am we made it for 10 months! My husband is a great man and I love him more than I ever knew possible to love someone that you have only known for such a short time. We are both divorced and are blending our families. You know you love each other when... One of my "whens" is making order out of chaos with our families. I have always like order and since we have been together that is not something I would associate with our lives or our house. I believe VERY strongly about just about everything and I have a very nonchalant husband. He is avid about his job and I about the children. We deal with our exes and our own emotions in regards to those exes. We deal with our guilt about not being with our children all the time and missing out on some of their milestones. We deal with different parenting methods. We deal with so many things, you wouldn't believe it or would have the time to read it all. It can be OVERWHELMING.
Right before I sat down to write this, I had to take several deep breaths to calm my self down and get my heart rate back to normal. If I don't, I am at risk for having a panic attack. That's embarrassing to admit. When I was younger, I believed those attacks were a sign that the person didn't have enough faith. Now, I know it is when I am trying to depend on myself rather than on the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great it thy faithfulness." They are new every morning. I need that. My problem is, I try to take on a month at a time and sometimes a few years. When I think about the future in some areas, I cringe. I panic. I want to crawl in the bed and hide under the covers. I can't do that or I will forget to enjoy today and I won't be able to deal with it all. We aren't built to carry all of that at once. I know that, but sometimes I have to just breathe, shake off my worries while I am laying them in God's hands. I may have to do that every hour upon the hour but I do it.
God has given you the very air you breathe and the ability to take that breath. Why would He waste time on something that precious? The answer is: He wouldn't. We are precious to Him. He tries us to make us grow. (Personally, I feel like I should be a giant by now) Growing is painful but it is necessary and if you know me, you know a little growth would do me some good!! This may feel silly but it really works! Take a second and inhale really deep and let it out slowly. Now, do it again and think of those verses. Tell God that you are laying your worries, burdens and future in His capable hands and you NEED Him to get you through today. You may have to do that several times today and then again tomorrow but JUST BREATHE. He's got this!!
I'm working on a project for an event coming up and in that work, I have been doing a little research on needing God DAILY. I believe that God is now trying me out to see if I believe what I say I believe. This week, I will be married for 10 months. To those of you that have been married for 20 years plus years, I can almost hear you chuckle as I say how thankful I am we made it for 10 months! My husband is a great man and I love him more than I ever knew possible to love someone that you have only known for such a short time. We are both divorced and are blending our families. You know you love each other when... One of my "whens" is making order out of chaos with our families. I have always like order and since we have been together that is not something I would associate with our lives or our house. I believe VERY strongly about just about everything and I have a very nonchalant husband. He is avid about his job and I about the children. We deal with our exes and our own emotions in regards to those exes. We deal with our guilt about not being with our children all the time and missing out on some of their milestones. We deal with different parenting methods. We deal with so many things, you wouldn't believe it or would have the time to read it all. It can be OVERWHELMING.
Right before I sat down to write this, I had to take several deep breaths to calm my self down and get my heart rate back to normal. If I don't, I am at risk for having a panic attack. That's embarrassing to admit. When I was younger, I believed those attacks were a sign that the person didn't have enough faith. Now, I know it is when I am trying to depend on myself rather than on the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great it thy faithfulness." They are new every morning. I need that. My problem is, I try to take on a month at a time and sometimes a few years. When I think about the future in some areas, I cringe. I panic. I want to crawl in the bed and hide under the covers. I can't do that or I will forget to enjoy today and I won't be able to deal with it all. We aren't built to carry all of that at once. I know that, but sometimes I have to just breathe, shake off my worries while I am laying them in God's hands. I may have to do that every hour upon the hour but I do it.
God has given you the very air you breathe and the ability to take that breath. Why would He waste time on something that precious? The answer is: He wouldn't. We are precious to Him. He tries us to make us grow. (Personally, I feel like I should be a giant by now) Growing is painful but it is necessary and if you know me, you know a little growth would do me some good!! This may feel silly but it really works! Take a second and inhale really deep and let it out slowly. Now, do it again and think of those verses. Tell God that you are laying your worries, burdens and future in His capable hands and you NEED Him to get you through today. You may have to do that several times today and then again tomorrow but JUST BREATHE. He's got this!!
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