Living A Life Of Unconditional Love

LIVING A LIFE OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

By: C. Mason Davis

A pastor from a small town was asked to preach in a large city’s church while their pastor was away. This church had more members than he’d seen in any one place before. He was pretty nervous and even more so just minutes before the service was to start. He realized that he’d forgotten his teeth back at the hotel room. Panicked, he sought out the associate pastor and told him of the problem. “I can’t preach without teeth,” he said. The associate pastor thought for a second and then told the pastor he’d be right back. He told Brother Jones of the problem and Brother Jones said he might have a solution. Five minutes later he came back to the study with Brother Jones in tow. Brother Jones pulled a set of dentures out of a pocket and gave them to the pastor. The pastor put them in his mouth, but they were too small. “They don’t fit,” he said. Brother Jones took them back and reached into a different pocket and handed another pair to the pastor. “These fit perfectly,” the pastor said. Even better than his own teeth, he thought. He went to the altar and gave the best sermon of his life. Afterwards, he sought out Brother Jones to thank him. “Brother Jones,” he said, “I’d like to know where your office is, I’ve been looking for a new dentist.” Brother Jones looked at him with a confused look on his face and said, “But I’m not a dentist, I’m a Funeral Director.”

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

Love takes effort. Just like a smile takes more facial muscles than it does to frown. Unconditional love takes faith. Faith in Christ, faith in yourself, and faith in those that you love, as well as trust. 1 John 4:16 “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” It’s easier to be lazy and not try as hard, taking everyone and everything for granted, and possibly end up forgetting how to love, as well as who we love, and why. Too many couples lose sight of why they became a couple in the first place and quit trying to make their relationship work. Ephesians 5:33 states, “Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” Fact is a lot of couples quit trying long before everything becomes a mere convenience. The romance stops, the love falters when the effort stops. Instead of being lazy by spending more time in the recliner with the television on, why not work at spending quality time together as an effort to put the romance and love back into your relationship and into your lives. If you’ll try, you might just be surprised how bigger issues suddenly become small and insignificant. You might just be surprised how your thoughts and feelings can go from negative to positive. Perhaps then you’ll be able to smile at each other without much effort, or even notice that you’re smiling.

2 Timothy 2:23-24, “But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.” It is so much easier to yell and argue about issues than it is to talk things out calmly. We talk more and listen less, and we don’t allow ourselves any room in our argument to understand the spouse’s perspective, which in most cases would help in solving the issue at hand. Although it takes more energy to react in negative ways it seems to be how we choose to act when facing different viewpoints or opinions. When we are tired, mentally and/or physically, we often take the direction that takes less effort by talking louder, faster, and losing patience. What we should be doing instead is reaching down deep into ourselves, showing our special someone’s how much we love them without conditions. How much we want them to be happy, even if that means being more patient, giving into their wants and needs more often, so any disagreement can be ended with a long kiss and a tight hug. At times we can become so weak and tired that we ignore problems and don’t face them. Unfortunately, when the problems go ignored, they become much bigger, like a big weed in a beautiful flower bed. Don’t allow anything to take all your strength, not even your job. It’s great to work hard to support yourself and your family, but it takes a great deal of work to make relationships of any kind to flourish. If your work zaps all of your strength and you haven’t any energy to work on your relationships, they will become the weeds in your flower bed. All relationships take work, whether they’re old or new. If we’ll make the effort to renew our love for our families and other relationships, and especially our love of God every day, we’ll find that all of our relationships will thrive, God will give us the strength we need, and other’s will be more forgiving towards our shortcomings. This is when we’ll be able to see more clearly that nothing is as bad as it seems and our want for loving unconditionally can be realized. When we don’t give our thanks to everyone in our lives often enough, negative feelings, thoughts, and issues can build around you like a tall brick wall, and you feel stuck with no relief in sight. But with the love of family and love from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, no wall is impenetrable. No hurdle is too high. Psalm 110:3 reads, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.” All it takes is more effort and you’ll be surprised how uplifting life can be. God does have great things in store for each of us. He’s the great rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. One of His greatest rewards is His creation of unconditional love. How many of you believe that unconditional love is possible? If you’re a parent or a pet owner, you must know that it’s possible. Perhaps you start out your marriage feeling that unconditional love. A lot of people make excuses as to why that strong bond doesn’t last. They say, “True love doesn’t last, it fades with time.” But if you love God unconditionally and you know He feels the same for you, then you know these reasons are just excuses for failure in relationships. I’m sure you could look at every, single divorce case ever, and knowing all about those relationships, the main reason for them failing is a lack of effort, among other reasons.