Post 19: things we love to hate

We go through life learning that people change. Sometimes we’re thankful, and other times we wish they hadn’t changed quite so much.

If God’s love for His children is truly unconditional, that means He accepts everyone for how He made them. Every bit of who we are is made with so much intention. We were knit in our mothers womb just how He wanted … yet we still want and expect so much change from the people around us.

Maybe we think “I love this person, but I’d love them even more if they changed this one thing” or “I love them unconditionally, but I wish this one thing was different.” But what if they don’t change? What if the one thing you wish was different about the person you love never changes? Will you still love them?

Unconditional love means loving the flaws. Not asking for anything in return or waiting for them to change, just simply loving them. I won’t lie, this is a little easier said than done sometimes. We aren’t perfect people. Maybe we see the flaws and choose to ignore it for a little while and then, slowly, what we love to hate about someone becomes their biggest flaw that you can’t stop nitpicking. Then it’s not something you love to hate anymore, it’s something you just hate. You haven’t really loved every aspect of this person, you've chosen to tolerate some.

Every single day that we wake up, we are given a fresh start. We can choose to love unconditionally and reflect God’s grace or we can wake up on the wrong side of the bed everyday praying that a habit of someone we love would change … rather than praying that we learn to show unconditional love for even our neighbor who’s music is too loud at 2am.

At church this morning, the pastor spoke about work. He spoke about how we are made to work, but not for the sake of making money or getting promoted. We are made to work for our Father … not for any other purpose. We are given the chance every single day to show the glory of God through everything we do, including our 9-5 that we feel obligated to do in order to survive. We don’t survive because we work, we survive because we are doing every little thing for a greater purpose … for the greater purpose … for Him.

We love because He loves us exactly how we are.