You Are More Loved Than You Know
I recently heard someone say that, “love without boundaries is self harm” and it resonated with me as I had always heard throughout my life to “love your neighbor as yourself.” So to me, that meant to give until I had nothing left because that's what God wanted. Right?!
I recently went through a period in my life where I was giving more than I had emotionally, physically and financially, to the wrong person. I was exhausted and became lost in what I thought was love. My mindset had changed to revolve around ensuring this person would love me forever and need me, so that I could live and be happy. It was a toxic period that led me to many months of pain, insecurities and fears. Fears like, what if they left? What if they don’t like me anymore or don’t need me anymore? To the displeasure of younger me, the person left my life and I felt as if a piece of me left with them. Honestly, I thought it did for a while. Some of the worst pain I have ever experienced happened that day and it took many months to heal. I share this story to show that loving others comes with boundaries and in order to love like Jesus you need to let God fill you with His great love.
Loving is a beautiful thing, I love my family, my boyfriend, my friends, nature, and coffee. All those things are, most of the time, easy to love. On the other hand we have everyone else that God instructs us to love like our rude coworkers or customers, annoying roommates and so many more people placed in our lives. When we put God first in our lives we don’t need to rely on our hearts to love the challenging people or situations in life, we can hold close to Him and He gives us exactly what we need.
God wants us to have healthy and love filled relationships, ones that reflect His ways for us. Though, in today's world, there are many people we will find ourselves in relationships that don’t have our best at heart. As a reminder, love in a healthy form should be filled with patients, kindness, forgiveness, trust, and security. If you don’t find these qualities in people who are supposed to be loving you back, take a look from the outside or ask a trusted individual to help you evaluate the situation. Learning to love with God as the center of our lives is a masterpiece and reflects who God wants us to be. Then finding people in our lives that know how to love us and show us the love that God provides, makes all the difference.
“He said to him,””love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22: 37-39
“With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.”
Ephesians 4:2-3
“The Bible talks about love many times but here are some of my favorites regarding this topic, “...If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is made complete in us.“
1 John 4:12b