July 8

“It has been said that we never really love anyone until we can do without them for their good.  Measured by this test, how few there are who really love.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 7/8

At first I did not understand how “doing without someone” could be for their own good until I thought about my children.  In doing so I thought about how my own mother got hysterical when I told her I wanted to move out.  Even though I was going to leave home in six months to get married I felt I needed to be on my own.  I couldn’t understand her reaction especially since I’d be gone in a few months anyway.  Being the obedient daughter that I was I stayed.  Now that I have grown sons I need to remind myself of this episode so that I don’t make the same mistake.  It’s such a fine line between loving selfishly and loving someone for their good.  Encouraging my boys to step out on their own even if it means I will no longer have their company is genuinely loving them.  To encourage them to follow God’s leading in their careers even though it means their living across the country or even across the world is genuinely loving them.  I think any relationship we have needs to be examined.  Are we demanding too much of that person’s attention?  Everyone needs room to explore and to grow outside of their immediate environment.

“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.  Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  1 Corinthians 13:4-7