From my morning devotional

☕️❤️ Love well, beautiful friends, and you will live well. Love is our agent of transformation. Our heavenly Father, who is fierce in his love for us, is adamant that we love one another likewise. There are so many people we call enemies who are actually just people who are hurting and desperate to be loved. As followers of Christ, we do not have the option of not loving them. Loving one another is a command rather than a suggestion.

In 1 Corinthians 13:3, Paul lists acts of unmitigated generosity, such as giving away all our possessions to the poor and the unthinkable act of submitting our bodies to the flames of agonizing martyrdom, and tells the church that if such acts are not motivated by love, they will add nothing to the giver. He is driving his point home:

Everything – Love = Nothing

Without love, we are nothing.

Without love, we add nothing.

Having received such a generous love from our Father, we are to love as we are loved:

Fearlessly, because there is no fear in love.

Selflessly, because love is not selfish.

Free of offense, because love is not easily offended.

Triumphantly, because love never fails.

Endlessly, because love is eternal.

God insists that love be the motive behind all we do. Jesus is to be our pattern of how to love.

I have made the mistake of loving others in response to the pattern of how they loved me. The truth is, I wish I would have followed this directive to love better sooner. As God’s daughters, we are positioned to love others well because we are so well-loved. Looking back over my life, I have no doubt that some of my situations and relationships would have landed differently if I had loved the people involved in the same way Jesus loves me.

While I can’t change the past, I am left with clear choices going forward. I can feel bad, and the sadness will stay with me, or I can flip my mistakes into lessons for my future and for others. Once we own our mistakes, they no longer own us. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes that I made. Love well and you will not live with regrets☕️💙☕️.

Sweet Jesus, i can hear my Mema telling me,” Love him, anyway, and don’t you DARE give up on him,” when i was angry at my cousin.

We butted heads for years and i would sit next to Mema and be so angry that i would cry and she would grab ahold of my leg and say “That doesn’t matter, what matters is i love him to pieces and so do you, you just don’t want to let on”

She was right. She was always right.

I kept my promise to never give up and to love, just like she did.

He’s still the one that checks in with me, i check in with him. I know good and well that he loves me and he knows good and well that i love him,too.

I wish i could say it’s that way for others but it’s not.

I’ve guarded my heart because I’ve been hurt so much.

I’ve been selfish, because of that.

I’ve held back because I’ve felt the strong of rejection
and the slap of harsh words.

I’ve stopped checking in after no responses for years.

I’ve found reasons but those are really excuses, wrapped in the glittery paper that makes me believe it’s not.

I am supposed to love – anyways- even if, even when, no matter what
Because He loved me first.

He doesn’t give up.

He never does
Never did.

I damn straight gotta love more like Jesus, more like Mema, more like i am and less like i used to