I responded with the obvious answer, “Yes, I would! No matter what!”
She asked, “Even if they didn’t clean their room?”
“Well, I wouldn’t like that but I would always love them, no matter what!”
I gave them extra kisses and spent extra time tucking them in, just in case there was any doubt.
So how young is it that we learn what pleases the ones in our lives?
How young is it that we understand how our identity is formed by others.
Formed by the very way they view us.
So we crave their love, their care towards us and their positive opinion of us…
No matter what!
Oh and those moments, when we were still young and tender, when we were deeply wounded by a parent, a mean kid at school or someone else close to us…
You know those times, when you stand stunned that someone could treat someone so…
Is there really a word for it?
A word for an action or string of words that steals a child’s innocence, shades their trust in people or opens their eyes to a new world
A world where people treat people inhumanly
A world where a tender, impressionable young one is wounded
Wounded by the reality of how harsh, evil and cruel the world we live in truly is.
A world where the devil is the prince of the power of the air and roams about looking for little ones, and big ones, to devour
Today, my day consisted of a lot of young ones running in, out and around.
And I love them.
Because it’s a privilege
Because I know who they are
Because I want them to always remember that their Mom or their friend’s Mom believed the best in them.
Just in case…
Just in case, the world throws a brick of evil words through the windows of their heart.
Just in case, the roaring lion strives to rip them to shreds, trying to destroy them.
Just in case, they think of forgetting because in all those thoughts that pass through their heads, a lie weaves its way in.
Regardless of how much I love them, pour into them or protect them, I can’t keep them from the truth…
The truth of what kind of world we live in or the kind of people we live in it with.
Today I lived in it with a difficult person, a hurtful person and a manipulative, sneaky person.
And I was upset.
Deeply upset.
Probably because I care, more than them,
Maybe because I long so desperately for the hope of what’s coming that I forget I still live here…
With the broken that lashes out; with the wounded that wound; with the empty that cling.
Or maybe because I still long for earthly approval; I do delight in others love and I glean joy from pleasing others.
Maybe because somewhere along the way I grew to love what those things did for me and put those things first.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God
I know my King has set an exact and perfect course for me and that I am to walk that out.
How dangerous is it if others words or actions cause an earthquake for me as I walk that course out?
How stable and do-able is that walk going to be?
For he that wavereth (hesitates, doubts) is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:6 (Parenthesis are added from the Amplified Bible)
Well, I’m sick of rethinking my course because of those strong winds and people who blow across my path.
See I know who I am…
His!
I know where I’m going…
Home someday, and
I know why…
Because I’m His Christ-follower with a plan and a purpose!
Not to dwell in the lions den for longer then the night.
Not to sway or be upset by the wild winds that blow or the quakes that strive to shift.
And not to be measured by the other peoples standards
But to love…
No matter what,
Him first and you second.
No matter what!
