AUTHENTIC LOVE!
One of my old friends chose self preservation over our friendship.
Her fear and her follies fed her insecurities and the underlying secrets that bound her in a living lie...So she betrayed me to save herself.
I remember feeling devastated and destroyed at the cruelty of her actions. I fell limp and lost because I could not wrap my mind around her choices. My children were shattered because they had held her to a higher standard.
At that moment in my life, as I prayed for guidance, I knew only one solution. I reached out to the one friend who never lets us down...My best friend, Jesus. I clung to him like a scared child clings to a parent. I threw myself into prayer and penance, worship and spiritual renewal. I read and I studied and I sought spiritual counsel...and slowly but surely my Lord delivered me from the pain and the poison of her actions.
The Jesus I know has very clearly and succinctly told us how we are to relate to one another. He made no exceptions and he created no loopholes. He simply said, "...Love one another as I have Loved you."
As Christians, we are held to a higher standard because of the greatest act of unconditional Love...The sacrifice of the cross. We cannot ignore our legacy and we cannot deny it's purpose for our lives. We are called to promote the image of Christ in everything we think, say and do and in all of our relationships--no matter how challenging that may be.
There was a time when I used to excuse myself saying, "I'm doing the best I can." My old friend used to say "He knew what he got when he made us." Those cop outs don't work for me anymore.
God is Love and he made us in his image and likeness to teach us how to Love and to spread that Love far and wide-to the ends of the earth. Anything short of that is dishonorable and selfish.
It's taken me a long time to get to this place of understanding and total acceptance...But I'm glad I'm here. I'm reminded of the little Muslim girl I interviewed for television during the Bosnian war. She, her mother and her sister had been living in one dorm room inside a refugee camp for two years. Her father and brother had been killed. I asked her if she hated the people who did this to her family and she very humbly replied, "No, I only have Love in my heart-I can't help it."
Now-that is the essence of truly authentic-life altering Love.
Her fear and her follies fed her insecurities and the underlying secrets that bound her in a living lie...So she betrayed me to save herself.
I remember feeling devastated and destroyed at the cruelty of her actions. I fell limp and lost because I could not wrap my mind around her choices. My children were shattered because they had held her to a higher standard.
At that moment in my life, as I prayed for guidance, I knew only one solution. I reached out to the one friend who never lets us down...My best friend, Jesus. I clung to him like a scared child clings to a parent. I threw myself into prayer and penance, worship and spiritual renewal. I read and I studied and I sought spiritual counsel...and slowly but surely my Lord delivered me from the pain and the poison of her actions.
The Jesus I know has very clearly and succinctly told us how we are to relate to one another. He made no exceptions and he created no loopholes. He simply said, "...Love one another as I have Loved you."
As Christians, we are held to a higher standard because of the greatest act of unconditional Love...The sacrifice of the cross. We cannot ignore our legacy and we cannot deny it's purpose for our lives. We are called to promote the image of Christ in everything we think, say and do and in all of our relationships--no matter how challenging that may be.
There was a time when I used to excuse myself saying, "I'm doing the best I can." My old friend used to say "He knew what he got when he made us." Those cop outs don't work for me anymore.
God is Love and he made us in his image and likeness to teach us how to Love and to spread that Love far and wide-to the ends of the earth. Anything short of that is dishonorable and selfish.
It's taken me a long time to get to this place of understanding and total acceptance...But I'm glad I'm here. I'm reminded of the little Muslim girl I interviewed for television during the Bosnian war. She, her mother and her sister had been living in one dorm room inside a refugee camp for two years. Her father and brother had been killed. I asked her if she hated the people who did this to her family and she very humbly replied, "No, I only have Love in my heart-I can't help it."
Now-that is the essence of truly authentic-life altering Love.
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