Adoption is a choice.
It says, “I Chose You.”
“I Love You.”
When asked, “Why are you sad?”
I explain how discipline can be hard.
With many tears, a hug and love is asked,
From a promise God kept, a gift He gave,
My child that means so much to me.
With a heart torn apart, my decision to make.
To give, and my child learns without honour.
Or
To with-hold, and my child grows with honour,
Although a struggle, a lesson is learnt.
At the end, love is received.
That hug, that warmth.
A reminder, to my child,“I am loved, I am cherished.
My Dad cares so much for me.”
I then explain,
“My Son, what you feel, only for a short time,
I feel most of the time.
When those I chose, ignore, reject.
A stranger I feel, alone in this place.
No love, no embrace.
A nobody who chose to love,
My worth stolen by memories that remind me and say,
‘I am Human, I make mistakes. I am not Perfect.’”
I suppose you have to ask the question why love? When you do you make yourself vulnerable to being hurt again and again. But I remember hearing these words once:
It takes a lot of courage to stand naked without any armour for protection, to open up your arms to another human being and say, “I Love You.” That’s as vulnerable as you’ll ever be in this world, but it’s worth it.
From that time as well as knowing the scriptures on what God asks of us as to Love Him with all our hearts and with our souls and with all our minds and with all our strength and as well love each other the same, I made that decision to follow the way of love. I made that decision to love as I would hope to be loved. If I do wrong I would wish to be forgiven, so if someone does wrong to me I too must forgive for we all make mistakes and no one is perfect. Loving isn’t easy when it seems that it’s only one way, it’s so easy to run away, to hide, to close off and put those barriers up that say, “don’t touch me, keep your distance, I don’t want to be hurt again.” But in the end should we say no, should we run? Discipline is hard, God’s discipline is even harder to understand when you’re going through it, Why does God allow something?
David Watson in his book – Discipleship writes:
God is a God of peace; but Satan can play on our weaknesses so that we become peace-lovers rather than peace-makers. We avoid conflict; we fail to resolve tensions in relationships; we allow sin to continue within the fellowship without being challenged; we agree with all points of view in a muddy ecumenism instead of clear unity in Christ. Christ the Bridegroom looks for moral and doctrinal purity in his bride, the church. In his word he tells us to ‘speak the truth in love’ so that we can grow up in every way into him. He knows that we are not perfect: we will all make mistakes, and we do not yet see things clearly. But as we sort out our relationships with honesty, love and forgiveness, so the God of true peace will be with us.
We are called, as disciples of Christ to share our lives together, and, if need be, our possessions together. We are to open our hearts to one another, take off our masks, become real and honest. And when fellowships of Christians try seriously to do this in the power of the Holy Spirit, they will soon discover two things. First, they will find deep and loving relationships as brothers and sisters in Christ, and this can prove enormously enriching and fulfilling. But second, they will also find pain, since we are still angular and sinful persons who, huddling together for warmth, hurt and jab one another. The temptation then will be to separate, to pull back to a safe and less painful distance, to erect little barriers, and to protect ourselves from those vulnerable deep relationships where we are likely to get hurt again and again. In so doing, we shall destroy, or at least greatly weaken, the love and unity that Christ commanded, prayed for, died for, and sent his Spirit to accomplish. In seeking to evade this particular cost of discipleship, we have denied our master and grieved his Spirit. Had Jesus pulled back from his own disciples when they hurt him, the Christian church would never have been born.
Maybe this is your prayer, we all need, and God’s Love will never fail:
Why does love fail?
Why do people hurt each other?
We say we love but so easily we turn away.
We say we love to share but when it’s asked for
What happens?
Why do we stop loving when things get hard?
Why must we allow wrong thoughts to destroy love,
When all that is needed is for love to be seen,
That love to be felt instead of those thoughts to
Carry on as though the truth.
Why do people allow someone to suffer hurt through
Untruth rather than go and reaffirm love?
Why is it so hard for those words,
"I Love You,”
And that love to be given?
Lord examine our love and change us.
Father, Your Love never fails.
Give us that Love.
Amen.
The Scriptures say it all:
Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:18
Let the Walls Come Down, It’s time to stop running, and let Love Come In.
How Do You See Others?
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.
Colossians 1:22-23
God sees us through our Holy, Saviour, The Lord Jesus Christ. He sees us as whom we are, in and through Christ not as we see ourselves and even as others may see us. He sees our potential not our weaknesses, not our failures. He sees us as He called us, purposed us to be.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.
Colossians 1:22-23
God sees us through our Holy, Saviour, The Lord Jesus Christ. He sees us as whom we are, in and through Christ not as we see ourselves and even as others may see us. He sees our potential not our weaknesses, not our failures. He sees us as He called us, purposed us to be.
Because you see me with no honour, in your eyes. You expect me to be disloyal.
It doesn’t mean a person is without honour or that the person is disloyal, it just means that’s the way someone has chosen to see the person.
Seeing Each Other as God Sees Us.
God sees us and it’s like He looks at that small part that is Him in us and that small piece outweighs everything else. As He sees us He asks that we see others, to love them as He Loved us, seeking the face of God in others. We all fail to see the face of God in others. We all reflect the Glory of God to some level, and we need to seek and help that Glory to be seen and to grow in each and everyone.
It’s important how we see each other and how we encourage each other to give more of Jesus in our lives.
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