Let It Be part 2
Love does not demand its (HIS) own way. Which is another way of saying love is unconditional. Which is another way of saying we ought to let people be who they are... and love them anyway. Let me make this as simple as I can: Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. And we are to love one another as He loves us. So if nothing can separate us from Him... nothing should separate us from each other either. All of these slights (most of them imagined, really) that we put between us... its the exact opposite of relationship. We're out here building walls to keep us from each other when we're supposed to be building bridges. Look at Romans 13:8, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." You know, the perfect law of liberty. The New Command, for the New Man. Again, loving others as Jesus loves us. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've been filled with. That's what this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God (life of LOVE) is all about. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other. You can't DO one without the other. Because they are not just connected, they are the same thing. And (once more) love is unconditional. As soon as you demand something from someone, you've set yourself up for failure, and frustration. Because people are going to do what they're going to do no matter how you feel about it. Even my son, Logan, who tries harder than anybody I've ever met to NOT get in trouble... even Logan does things that he KNOWS I don't want him to do. Not many, and not often, but it happens. And the father/son relationship is a little bit different than most other relationships. Because at his ripe old age of six, his buck stops with me. I'm responsible for him. Because he's mine. But even still, the BEST I can do is follow Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." And I think the key there is the word "should." Don't always crush people with the weight of what they shouldn't do. Don't tell people what's wrong with them. Build people up. Edify them. Show them--and I say SHOW because seeing is believing, and if they SEE you do it... that's a lot more powerful than "do what I say, not what I do"--Show them what they SHOULD do. Model it for them. One of the smartest things I think I ever did with Logan was make him a deal that says, "If you hear ME say it, YOU can say it." Because I keep my mouth pretty clean. I keep my words soft and sweet if at all possible. Especially around my kid. Point being, it doesn't matter what else he hears, or where he hears it from. He knows what's ok because he has a role model. Someone, again, who is responsible for him. So I guess its the difference between demanding your own way (good luck with that) and showing a more excellent way. And let me just say this to close it up for today: Don't ever beg for anything. Because if you have to beg... even if you get it... its not worth it. Gifts are freely given. They can't be earned. If someone doesn't want to give freely, don't even bother with it. You're better off without it. It might not seem like it when it seems like the one thing you want is the one thing you can't have. But trust me. Don't beg. It isn't worth it. Let it be.