Love is an amazing thing

Love is an amazing thing. I don't think that we truly understand what that word means or what it entails. I believe that if each one of us lived 'unconditional love', there would be no poverty, no homelessness, no war, no loneliness, no sorrow, no greed. All mankind would be at peace, and would have all things in common. There would not be a need to have more than what someone else has. We would be happy for all those around us and would not only give to our fellow man, but willingly receive the offerings from others. Unconditional love would lead to peace.

God is love. God is light. We are children of God. As we each have characteristics of our earthly parents, we also have within us characteristics of our Heavenly parents. Unfortunately, the noise and clatter of earthly matters, deafens us so we can't easily draw upon those characteristics. We forget who we are because we are so caught up in mortality. We forget that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, and in our flashes of spiritual recognition we think we are human beings having a spiritual experience. It takes a conscious effort and a lot of work to get ourselves back into the habit of seeing ourselves as the spiritual beings we are; and to get in tune with the Spirit of our Great Creator. It is possible though. And I believe that for us to survive the evils of our day, we must get in tune with His Spirit. God loves us. He didn't put us on this earth to fail. He put us on this earth to learn so we can become like Him. He does not intervene in the course of events that are put in motion by any of us. How else do we learn about consequences? If we don't have consequences for our actions, we'll never learn to change our actions. He does not intervene when somebody's stupid, or malevolent actions lead to harm to another being. If the perpetrator does not learn from and correct his actions, he seals his fate and will have to deal with his Creator at some point in the future. He may get away with it now, but ultimately he will not.

We were given an example to follow. God did not leave us here to struggle alone. Our great exemplar is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Born of a mortal mother and and immortal father, He lived and taught unconditional love. We can BE like him. We just need to BE; and follow in his footsteps. He loves us unconditionally. He did such amazing things for us because of this love. He did not turn his back on anyone. He did not judge anyone, even the sinners, as undeserving of his love and attention.

We may not agree with the choices that other people make for their own lives. That's okay. But, we have no right to treat them as if they have no value because of their choices. We are not the judge of the human race. We don't know all of the facts that lead people to make their choices. So, we must learn to love them for the spiritual beings they are.

When my first three children were teenagers and rebelled against all of the things they had been taught, it was very stressful for me as a parent. I spent a lot of time in prayer and reading the scriptures. One day I realized that my Heavenly Father loves each one of us unconditionally. He does not love the sin, but He loves the sinner. How could I, who am a recipient of his grace, do any less? I made a conscious effort to look at my children as our Heavenly Father looks at them and me. I was able to love them, in spite of them at times being unlovable, because I knew how much Heavenly Father loves them. I did not put conditions on that love. Even if they didn't do what I wanted them to do, I still loved them. And I forgave them when I was hurt by their words and actions.

One of the hardest things for us to do is to love ourselves unconditionally. I think we are our worst judges. We expect perfection of ourselves, but allow for imperfections in others. We come to this earth completely innocent, full of light and love. What happens in our environment during our early years shapes how we see ourselves and the world around us. Do we learn love and trust? Or, do learn hate and fear? Is our world a safe and happy place? Or, is our world a place of dread and pain? The experiences in the first few years of our lives sets us up for how we feel about our place in the world. There's an overwhelming number of screwed up people in this world. Screwed up by abuse of all kinds, by not being given the love they deserved from birth, not being able to trust the very people who should have loved them the most. There ought to be a requirement that potential parents must pass basic parenting classes in order to be able to bring a child into this world. Not to mention refresher courses. The human being is a very complex being, and as a mother I can testify that no two children are exactly alike. One child may cry at the very thought than mom or dad are disappointed in their action, and another child could care less. We are all so different. Yet, our needs are so very similar. I don't think there is a person alive who would not want to be loved unconditionally.

One of the worst things we can do is to tell a child he is stupid. (We can fill in any number of negative words here) The effect is that the child grows up to see themselves as the negative thing they've been told. We may do stupid things every now and then but that doesn't mean we are stupid. It simply means we did something stupid. Period. It doesn't take long for the beautiful light and love that we came to this earth with to be stifled. The light dims, and we become full fo self doubt. We don't see ourselves as the beautiful spiritual being that we are. We don't trust; we feel unworthy, and then build walls around ourselves, to protect ourselves from further hurt. Oh, the walls we build! If we are in a house with the shutters drawn shut, and the sun is shining brightly outside, it won't get inside. Same with us. The light and love being sent to us by our creator won't be able to penetrate the walls we have put up. Those walls will have to come down. Sometimes that is a very difficult process, when we've had those walls from a very young age. But, they have to come down. And, chances are the process of tearing those walls down will be like peeling an onion. There are many many layers, and sometimes we will cry.