WHEN LOVE GETS TIRED

  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.