I've written several posts lately about some tough family issues. I've been dealing with the lasting effects of childhood sexual abuse for years, and often I feel that I should be able to put it in the past. What I forget is that the abuse is in the past, but the effects linger long after the final episode is finished.
This week I've found myself on a roller coaster ride of mood swings. I've been happily aware of the wonderful life I have on one day, and deep in depressive despair over the state of extended family relationships on the next.
Yesterday while finishing up my Bible study I ran across this quote from Thomas a Kempis:
Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections
of others for you have many faults and imperfections
of your own that require forbearance.
If you are not able to make yourself what
you wish, how can you expect to mold
another in conformity to your will?
And I wonder how patient I am will the faults and imperfections of others.
The other day I saw this quote:
Don't judge me because my sin
is different that yours.
It made me stop and think about how frustrated I can become with other people.
I'm struggling right now to accept some things I'm not going to be able to change, and apparently God's not planning on changing them either. So how do I go about my daily life remembering to be loving toward those whose faults and imperfections I have trouble understanding simply because they are different than mine?
For me it all comes back to love. Verses like Deuteronomy 6:5
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength.
and Mark 12:29-31:
"The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.”
and James 2:8:
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your
neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
So today I find myself feeling gratitude for a heavenly Father who gives me constant reminders that His overwhelming desire is that we all love one another.
And by doing that, I am doing right.
linking up with Grace Alone
Obviously God is working to heal you from your past and move you ahead. I pray He continues to gently speak to you and give you His perspective. Acceptance is hard, yet freeing. Keep working through this, friend. Deliverance is on the other side.
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