To Love

"This is the week we focus on this love. Today we simply focus on this: to love everyone. Everyone! We are going to have so many opportunities today. People who passes by, people who at at the stores we go in, people who interacts with us. Every single time, we can say to ourselves "here's my chance to love Jesus" and we forget about ourselves and we are feeling at that time and we open ourselves to Him who lives in the other. The more we will do this, the more we realize that we are becoming more and more like Him." ~ Father Stanislao Daily Walk Heavenwards

Father Stan really spoke to me today with the words on his blog. If you have a chance to check it out, please do. He is a wonderful writer and teacher and we are blessed to have him at our church.

So much of what we do is for ourselves. In my journey to TRY (and I say TRY because I'm so terribly human) to be more like Jesus wants me to be, I have come to realize how highly critical I am of others, whether it's family, friends or people I meet on the street. I have always been quite negative by nature. It's always been hard for me to see through the bad to see the GOOD in someone. Something I am working VERY hard on as we go through Lent, is letting go of the bad and seeing all the good in everyone. I guess this is why Fr Stan's blog spoke to me so much today. My husband is a prime example...

It is so easy after being together for 11 years to dwell on the bad, be on the defensive with EVERYTHING and not show love the way I should. Why is that? How is it that the man I love more than anything in the world probably feels very unloved by me? Old habits! It's time to STOP. It's time to focus on ALL the wonderful things he does for me and his children. Forget the past and move forward. I most definitely carry a brick wall around with me everywhere I go and rarely let my guard down. I am thinking it's time to ditch the brick wall and let people in. It's time to let the defenses go and not worry so much that someone else may hurt me. Guess what? It's not all about ME! It's my job as a daughter of Christ to love EVERYONE without the brick wall. It's my job as a daughter of Christ to trust that God knows what is best for me...and if I ever do get hurt, He will catch me while falling. It's difficult to trust in God so much that we completely let our guard down, but I KNOW it is what He wants me to do. LOVE EVERYONE...let love show to others...don't hide behind the brick wall...God has my back!