One Sunday service pastor spoke on what it means to love God. He gathetrd our church's youth (not many, small church) and sat them on the bottom of the alter. He proceeded to show them a coin. It was thick, gold, and large. It also had two heads.
Pastor asked the children to describe the coin, and then if they thought it was real, why or why not?
Then he pulled a bag of change from his pocket and gave each of them a quarter. He asked them to observe the differences and see what made the quarter a real coin. The quarter had more weight. It was silver. Most importantly, it had two sides.
Pastor went on to explain the loving god is like a coin. There are two sides. On one side, you love god. On the other? You love His people. The two sides of the quarter cannot be separated. They are one. Loving god requires us to also love His people. The two can not be separated. To have one, you must have the other.
It was a beautiful message. One that really resonated with me.
My view of people as a whole has really changed. When you start to see others as god sees them, you realize that Everyone has struggles. Everyone falls. We all have doubts, questions, fears and insecurities. When you see as god sees (ok, at least partially, im not claiming to be perfect by any means) you begin to judge a lot less and have a lot more compassion.
As I go along reading posts and offering encouragement or just understanding, i find it easy to be compassionate. It comes naturally. Same with those I know personally. Its natural for me to be compassionate, understanding, and to lift up god to them. And it gives me an incredible feeling, a warm fuzziness for lack of better phrase. Its easy to demonstrate the love of god to friends, or strangers who have done nothing to us.
But what about those who've wronged us? Hurt us in some way? Slowly stole our spirit away until one day we realized we weren't ourselves?
How do we gather the courage it would take to forgive those people? How do we fill our hearts with god's love and compassion for them instead of being bitter and resenful? It takes just a bit more effort to love someone who by the world's standards doesn't deserve it.
We are commanded by god to love others as we love ourselves. (So if you're like me and thinking, well, I don't love myself very much, the get into accordance with gods word, and you will begin too. Im working on it). There were no exceptions to this such as, love others as you love yourself...unless they emotionally abuse you. Unless they drink. Unless they pop pills. Or are just plain weird.
I don't know if ill ever reach a place where I can fforgive all those "somebodies" (yes, you need to read my last post) and love them as god would have me do. But maybe the next time im tempted to sit around and think about the hurtful things they've said and done....
I can take a quarter and turn it in my hand.
Pastor asked the children to describe the coin, and then if they thought it was real, why or why not?
Then he pulled a bag of change from his pocket and gave each of them a quarter. He asked them to observe the differences and see what made the quarter a real coin. The quarter had more weight. It was silver. Most importantly, it had two sides.
Pastor went on to explain the loving god is like a coin. There are two sides. On one side, you love god. On the other? You love His people. The two sides of the quarter cannot be separated. They are one. Loving god requires us to also love His people. The two can not be separated. To have one, you must have the other.
It was a beautiful message. One that really resonated with me.
My view of people as a whole has really changed. When you start to see others as god sees them, you realize that Everyone has struggles. Everyone falls. We all have doubts, questions, fears and insecurities. When you see as god sees (ok, at least partially, im not claiming to be perfect by any means) you begin to judge a lot less and have a lot more compassion.
As I go along reading posts and offering encouragement or just understanding, i find it easy to be compassionate. It comes naturally. Same with those I know personally. Its natural for me to be compassionate, understanding, and to lift up god to them. And it gives me an incredible feeling, a warm fuzziness for lack of better phrase. Its easy to demonstrate the love of god to friends, or strangers who have done nothing to us.
But what about those who've wronged us? Hurt us in some way? Slowly stole our spirit away until one day we realized we weren't ourselves?
How do we gather the courage it would take to forgive those people? How do we fill our hearts with god's love and compassion for them instead of being bitter and resenful? It takes just a bit more effort to love someone who by the world's standards doesn't deserve it.
We are commanded by god to love others as we love ourselves. (So if you're like me and thinking, well, I don't love myself very much, the get into accordance with gods word, and you will begin too. Im working on it). There were no exceptions to this such as, love others as you love yourself...unless they emotionally abuse you. Unless they drink. Unless they pop pills. Or are just plain weird.
I don't know if ill ever reach a place where I can fforgive all those "somebodies" (yes, you need to read my last post) and love them as god would have me do. But maybe the next time im tempted to sit around and think about the hurtful things they've said and done....
I can take a quarter and turn it in my hand.
