Love first

Love first.

It seems to be a simple concept.  It is direct instruction to us.  Love God.  Love your neighbor.

Then why are there times that this loving thing comes with great difficulty?  We can feel the love.  I mean act the love.  Then there are those times, the times when we don’t feel the love quite as much… the times that the anger, the hurt, the fear of baring our vulnerable souls get in the way.  I don’t want to be in the way of His love.  How do I get out of the way of myself to love with His heart?

I’ve heard it said

I love you… I just don’t like you very much right now

I know I’ve been there a time or two ~ or ten.  Those times when I am at my wit’s end… done with chores, done with responsibilities, done with complaining, done with all the needing…

These are the times to wrap myself in love in order to wrap them in love.  This is when acting love is an act from God.

It’s easy to love when you’re feeling all warm and fuzzy… the chores are done without a whimper (does not happen, well sometimes on Christmas… or mother’s day), the schoolwork is done without a complaint (again, not so much), the children are holding hands while running through a field of flowers (ok, maybe on a beach… at the direction of a photographer).  It’s easy to overflow with love… when all is going well.  Acting love when it’s not so pretty… this is the tough one.  The most important one.  The one they’ll remember.  The love they’ll carry with them… and pass on.  It’s easy to love my children, my husband, my family, my friends… what about the ones that aren’t quite as loveable ~ through my eyes?  How do I teach my little flock to love the unloveable?

A heart for love during the most unloveable of times… I need His eyes.

Love when it’s not easy.

I want to love as I am loved.  I want to see others as Christ sees us.  

This is the tough love… the love that matters most.  This is the love that can only be done with the overflow of what He gives us.

I’ve let the thought of love tumble through my mind like a marble searching for the clearest path through the maze.

It is quite startling what you can see in another soul’s eyes when you ask God for a glimpse of how He sees.  Startling how the heart stirs at the glimpse.  The only way I know how to truly love my neighbor… my neighborhood of flawed human souls is to ask Him to fill me with it… and then get out of the way.  Just get out of His way.  This, a life long exercise.

The only way I know how to love so it matters is to see the eyes with His eyes.

Love first

As He loved me first

Before I ever knew Him.

To walk this walk, without tripping over myself, this is my prayer for today.  Get out of the way.  Yield to His way.  Love first.

 

1 John 4:19

We love because he first loved us.