Why are we so afraid of Love? I am a Lover and a Dreamer by nature. My Mom says I was born wearing Rose Colored Glasses! And yet, anxiety and insecurity were shields about me for most of my life. While I could see Love and give Love freely and abundantly, this was a gift given, not freely received.
Have you ever given Love only to feel like it wasn’t enough? Or maybe it was ignored? Or maybe it was always taken but never reciprocated and you felt invisible or irrelevant?
There is so much written on Love and what it is, what it means, how it looks and behaves. For Believers, the most well known passage is the Love Chapter-I Corinthians 13, often read at weddings. Love is first and foremost a Person, Jesus Christ. Love is also a feeling, emotion and a commitment.
So what are we so afraid of? Aside from any experience we have had, I believe it's the fear of rejection. If you have been betrayed or hurt in your past, it’s not be easy to love the next time. We build a wall of protection around our heart to make sure that next time, the level of pain will be less. Our skin gets thicker and thicker for self-preservation's sake until we either rebel and give up on ever loving again or you become so guarded that you almost cannot feel love again. I lived a loooong time in that place.
But God!
God’s Love is so sweet and generous, unconditional, tangible, exciting, fun, adventurous, forgiving and accepting us where we are, picking us up when we fall, our strength in weakness, catching and wiping away all the tears that fall, holding us when we are scared, lonely or sad, lovingly correcting our attitudes, guiding and protecting us from the enemy. God is the first One to celebrate our victories and cheer us on to the next one. He is our Father, Friend, Healer, Savior and Redeeming King, Lord over All. This is True Love.
Love grows where trust is the soil.
Trust is a main ingredient to grow love. As we learn to let our wall down, may our trust and dependence be placed in the plans and purposes of God first and above all others. Trusting God to lead us in our love for others, and allowing them to Love us too, as He first loved us.
Does it means everyone has access to our deepest places? No. But we lead in our relationships with Love, for Love, in the Name of Love.
People will be led into our hearts for a moment, a season or a lifetime. Here are a few tips as you learn to let Love in:
- Pray for those the Lord brings into your life. Pray for God to show you the plans He has for love to be exchanged. How will you love them and let them love you?
- Start small with trusting conversations. Get to know each other on deeper levels. When you don’t trust, you don’t share. Many relationships, be it marriage or friendships, are ministry opportunities. They all begin with a Day 1.
- Remember the enemy will always be after heart connections that stir each other in Jesus Name, so pray over your connections for covering, always clearly edifying and guarding.
- Miscommunications happen and feelings do get hurt. Pray and talk these out. Pridefulness has no place in Love.
Love is a beautiful Gift. May you choose to give and receive it, unafraid!
If today's encouragement hugged your HEART today, let me know in the comments or meet me over
in my Facebook Sisterhood Community! Feel free to share this blog with a friend who needs a heart hug too!
This is how YOU get to hug my HEART back!
Heart Hugs and Blessings,
Michele
What does Valentine's Day mean for you? Remember those younger preschool and elementary days when your Mom took you to the store to pick out the Box of Valentine's for every kid in your class whether you liked them or not?!? There was no avoiding not sharing kindness to the kids who were mean to you even in the slightest way. There is such a lesson to be learned right there and I could run down a rabbit hole with that one, but I will leave it there for right now.
Statistics say Christmas and Valentines are the highest recordings of suicide and depression. People feel unloved, unseen, dismissed, forgotten, used and lonely. Thanks to the commercialism of the holiday, men and women alike find themselves feeling left out in the absence of being romantically noticed.
Truth be told, relationship status has little to do with feeling loved, treasured, adored and precious.
Couples, whether married, engaged or courting, may not have a partner who is good at showing love. For some couples, they may have found themselves in a season of angst, miscommunication, betrayal, selfishness, grief, off balance or abuse,
Life and Love is intentional effort and hard work, with a whole lot of Jesus...okay, and small amounts of coffee and chocolate help too! Did I mention praying, grace and patience yet?!? lol
Back to the holiday....
Back to the holiday....
Somewhere along the timeline of adolescence into adulthood, This Love Day evolved from a community love to a more sensually-focused couple-relationship in the receiving of affections physically through tangible gifts or human touch. As young children begin to surge with socialtial pressures, and hormones mind you, school-aged pressures to couple-up build with every age. I get it...you're not coupled up right now, or maybe you are coupled up and not receiving love from your partner, but you want to be loved, seen and made to feel precious and beautiful like all the other Valentines walking around with flowers and balloons, sitting at Tables for 2..
You might find yourself wishing you could stop thinking about "finding love," "being loved," or "feeling adored and beautiful."
What if I said you don't have to!?
Friend, it is okay to want to be loved, to feel loved and to feel adored. The truth is YOU were created to be and YOU ARE!
Our human souls were created for belonging. Our complex yet fragile hearts are wired to desire Love, being the Love of Christ and Love with others.The temptation is to measure one's value on the quantity of received attention from other human hearts.
The commercial retail industry's banks on the addiction to love as they flood the market with all things in the name of Love.
So much so, the Love of Christ may not come to mind for most, yet here in His Sweet Love, we find the measure of our worth and value.
In this season, may I remind you of the greatest commandment, Love God and Love others! Should we celebrate loving others? YES! Should we also celebrate the Love of God? YES!
Sister Friend, Happy Month of Love! Grab your friends and get together this month in the name of Love, Jesus! Remind each other how beautiful and precious His Daughters are.
Whether happily coupled up, or dreaming of the day you will be, may you find intimacy in the Love of the Father for Your His child. There is no greater love to celebrate, cherish, trust, hope for that compares to His sweet heart for you!
With Love,
Michele
If today's encouragement hugged your HEART today, let me know in the comments or meet me over
in my Facebook Sisterhood Community! Feel free to share this blog with a friend who needs a heart hug too!
This is how YOU get to hug my HEART back!
Heart Hugs and Blessings,
Michele
