Unconditional Love

I type with one finger on my cellphone. I simply cannot master dual thumbs. So when I’m sitting in church and I’m trying to take notes often when I go back to read over my notes I have a good giggle over what I’ve typed trying to decipher what some words are supposed to be. 

This evening as I was spending time in prayer I felt led to go back to my notes from this morning’s message. Much to my amazement I was able to read what I typed. Not only was it not jumbled from me trying to hurry it was all capitalized. The portion of my notes, that I was drawn to, read:

“We must first love ourselves unconditionally before we can love others unconditionally.”

WOW! Think about that for a second.

“We must first love ourselves unconditionally before we can love others unconditionally.”

In scripture we find the two greatest commandments in Mark 12:30-31:

   1.    Love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.

   2.    Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love your neighbor as yourself. HA! How on earth do we do that when we are a society that is extremely quick to judge. Without any thought of a possible circumstance at hand we are quick to judge the mother of 4 in line at the grocery store paying for her groceries with food stamps. We are quick to judge the man standing at the red light holding a sign that says, “Will work for food”. We are quick to judge the woman with long beautiful blonde hair walking down the street. We are quick to judge the man driving the red sports car that just went zooming past in the fast lane.

I’m guilty. Are you? Are you guilty of judging someone else without knowing their circumstance? Better yet…are you guilty of judging yourself? Comparing yourself to others and putting yourself down?

If we’re doing all this judging, how on earth are we loving unconditionally? Isn’t unconditional love an accepting love? Maybe, just maybe, if we would ease up and stop our minds in mid thought and just love in the moment we could make a drastic change in not only our lives but the lives of others.

If we aren’t loving ourselves first, how on earth are we supposed to love someone, anyone, else? I’m pretty certain that it would be nearly impossible to love your neighbor as yourself when most of us don’t even like ourselves.

We say such rude things to and about ourselves that if a complete stranger walked up to us and said those things we’d want to throat punch them! So, why is it okay for us to speak so degrading and disrespectful to ourselves?

It’s time to stop!!

Today, I want you to know….I love me. I’m going to love me unconditionally because I’m an unique and divine masterpiece. I’m going to stop judging myself so harshly and forgive myself for the mistakes my flesh has made.

I want to walk forward in this life loving you for all you are and all that you were created to be….no matter who you are! 

So, starting today, I’m choosing to love me in order to be able to do what I’m called to do. Love my neighbors as myself.

No more judging. No more not forgiving myself for my mistakes. No more disrespectful and degrading words about myself in my head. It’s time for me to love me, unconditionally…because it’s what I'm called to do in order to be able to love you unconditionally.

We are made in HIS image. What's there not to love about that????

Blessings~

Bo 

09/29/2014

EVACUATION ROUTE

There are times that the storm is so wicked you can’t seem to escape it. No matter what you do you can’t break free of the cyclone that is crashing in around you. And then…you begin to think about it. You think about it more and more and more. And it becomes stronger and stronger until it has completely consumed your being.

How do you escape the thoughts of the storm? How do you get away and free yourself? The storm seems so strong you’re afraid you might drown.

Ever experienced this? These hopeless feelings of doom where no matter which way you look there seems to be no way out. I’ve been there many times. Too, many to count. And looking back to those circumstance I realized my focus was me and my storm. And that’s all I wanted to focus on. I didn’t want to even fathom the thought of thinking about something else.

In times of a troubled mind we need an evacuation route. Just like people who live on the coast need to know what route to take to escape the hurricane before hits land. Except at this point, our mind is already so consumed with the thoughts of our personal storm that it’s not just hit land it’s embedded upon our being.

More than ever that’s the exact time we need to reach to God. He is our evacuation route. If we cast our fears upon Him He can bring a comfort like no other. He meets us and accepts us right where we are.

He already knows the circumstances. This is a time that needs an evacuation route and that route can be found through prayer. And there is no wrong way to pray. Ever! In my most precious moments of prayer when I can’t think of what to say, I simply whisper, “Jesus. Please help me.”

He is waiting for us to reach to Him. He wants nothing to steal the joy He has given us. NOTHING!

“Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith builds perseverance. Perseverance must be complete so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4

Take the evacuation route. Get out of you mind and stop allowing those thoughts to steal your God-given joy.

Blessings~

Bo

09-25-2014