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 at a 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 to smile 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. 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.

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. 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. Unfortunately, when the problems go ignored, they become much bigger, like a big weed in a beautiful flower bed. 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. 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. 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.”