I used to wonder why some people had a terrible time making decent choices while others had a smooth sailing kind of life... no storms... not even a tiny ripple. And the reason I kept questioning it is that I was the one who continued to find the most unusual obstacles a human being could possibly attract. For someone who had graduated from High school as a valedictorian; I sure kept making a lot of mistakes. Then I realized intelligence had nothing to do with leading a successful life. If it did; I would have been an inventor of some sort. Thus far; I had only invented a spiral that kept uncovering new levels of ground zero.
Then I started reading the Bible. And the more I got into it with a passion to learn, the more God revealed the deeper meanings of his Word. The very first thing I learned was his unconditional love for me because John 3:16 said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." What an awesome moment that was! I had been looking for approval and a sense of belonging for as long as I could remember; none of which was given to me as a child.
Then God took me a step further as He explained to me why He had allowed the opposition to hurt me for so long. He showed me Romans 8:37 "In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." If God used that particular word to describe me; I had to believe He saw that certain quality in me or about me. Though I knew nothing about the meaning of this unusual word then; I still wanted to discover what it was all about.
I had already read Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in his own image." Realizing that God had made me in his image; I knew He must have placed all the right ingredients within me. His desire was never to see me hurt but to see me as the conqueror He had made me be. And since his idea and expectations of me couldn't possibly be wrong; I simply had to start digging up the kind of resilience I never knew I possessed.
Up until that moment; I had bowed to fear, shame and guilt because those had always been the main ingredients of my childhood years. But looking up to the right parent made all the difference in my life.
I encourage you, brothers and sisters of mine, to depart from the flawed mentality of your upbringing and forgive those who didn't know any better; just so you can indulge in the one true love that happens to be eternal and would never fade.
Blessings...