Sacrificial Love
Coming back to Huntsville and school has been an interesting experience. While home, I was confronted with much of the emotional ties to the past. Amazing how those things can create such a strong and compeling story line within. It's as if a script of definition is laid out before you and it's your choice as to whether or not you will allow the past to define you.
There's a scripture in the Bible that states "old things have been past away, all things have become new". I'm coming to the conclusion that this statement is a daily choice to walk in light of today's realities or yesterday's.
All of us have "stuff" from our past that we're not proud of. Whether it's a mistake, a failure or regret, it's not who we really are. Sometimes we forget that this life is a journey. And we have the power to decide whether we let that journey take us forward or backward.
While home, I had a person from my past email me during a time that was incredibly painful. In fact, I thought it could have been deemed a sadistic attempt to punish me and make me suffer. Yet, I chose to give this person the benefit of the doubt and treat them with as much maturity, respect and honor I could muster. I'm learning that it's not my place to judge another's motives, but rather to administer grace and love instead. The example Jesus taught was to even love those that seek you harm.
I still don't know what this individual's motives were, but I chose sacrificial love over anything other emotion or act.
It's situations like this that prove to my heart, once again, how far I've come and grown. In fact, the person I am today is nowhere close to the person I was even four months ago, let alone a year or three years ago.
But whether others want to treat us as the person we are today or the person they once knew, it's not our job to prove to them one way or another. All we can do is practice consitency along the journey towards the person we are.
1 Corinthians 13:4-11 (The Message)
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies.
There's a scripture in the Bible that states "old things have been past away, all things have become new". I'm coming to the conclusion that this statement is a daily choice to walk in light of today's realities or yesterday's.
All of us have "stuff" from our past that we're not proud of. Whether it's a mistake, a failure or regret, it's not who we really are. Sometimes we forget that this life is a journey. And we have the power to decide whether we let that journey take us forward or backward.
While home, I had a person from my past email me during a time that was incredibly painful. In fact, I thought it could have been deemed a sadistic attempt to punish me and make me suffer. Yet, I chose to give this person the benefit of the doubt and treat them with as much maturity, respect and honor I could muster. I'm learning that it's not my place to judge another's motives, but rather to administer grace and love instead. The example Jesus taught was to even love those that seek you harm.
I still don't know what this individual's motives were, but I chose sacrificial love over anything other emotion or act.
It's situations like this that prove to my heart, once again, how far I've come and grown. In fact, the person I am today is nowhere close to the person I was even four months ago, let alone a year or three years ago.
But whether others want to treat us as the person we are today or the person they once knew, it's not our job to prove to them one way or another. All we can do is practice consitency along the journey towards the person we are.
1 Corinthians 13:4-11 (The Message)
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies.
