Choosing Love

As I mentioned a few posts back, God and I have been talking a lot about loving people. We've been talking about random people, relationships, and just the way I have loved people in the past. This week has been harder than the last few.

For the last few weeks we've been discussing loving random people. As in taking the time to get past differences and reaching out to and extending the love of God to those who are different than me. I've been making progress in this area. Each week our lifegroup at the Community College puts the challenge out to love someone that we find it hard to love and then we report back in the next week. So far I have accomplished my challenge each week.

As God and I have been talking about love we've also been tackling a relationship in my life that has been difficult for a while. Unknowingly this particular person really hurt me. Instead of going to this person I chose to just put up walls and shut them out. My battle with this has been where's the line of loving like God and guarding our hearts. Of living with a guarded heart but yet not living with unnecessary walls. For the past month I've wrestled with this and how to handle this relationship and if I wanted to fix it or needed to fix it or whatever.

Finally this week God began to show me patterns in past relationships of how I do this. He also began to pinpoint some of the reasons as to why I do this. I then felt Him telling me that I need to recognize these patterns and move forward to correct them and not live like that. But to live as a person who chooses love. So last night I chose love and talked to this person who had hurt me. They had noticed that something was wrong in our relationship but couldn't figure it out. So I spilled everything and explained. I walked away last night with walls almost destroyed (I'm still working on it a little) and a friend in it's place. Such a feeling of peace and joy. I feel that I grew as a person. I feel like I grew in love. It was great.

I realized once again last night that love is a choice. We get hurt and we have to choose to move past the hurt and pain, not put up walls, but choose to love. In relationships we have the choice to run or to love. With random people we have the choice to choose differences and selfishness or to choose love. It takes action, forgiveness, selflessness, and the Holy Spirit. I'm really trying hard to live a life rooted in choosing love! I have a sneaking suspicion that that's the way that God wants it! (Colossians 3:12-14)

Until then......