Learn to Love from a distance

“Then one of them, (a Pharisee) ask him a question… Master which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind.”  (Matthew 22:35 - 37)

I think Jesus is saying here love the Lord thy God the way I love him. There is so much that goes into that kind of love. The fact that Jesus was the only begotten son of God does not necessarily mean that he would Love God. We know that many people hate their father. I am sure they feel justified in doing so. The man is mean, evil, abusive, and etc. etc. and yet does not the scriptures say, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you , do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5: 44)

Loving an abusive father, mother, husband or other does not mean that you allow yourself to be degraded. If you are in a situation where it is unsafe to leave or tell or get help you still need to remember that your Father in Heaven loves you, and he also loves your abuser. You may be stuck in a trash heap, but you are not trash. So help me this is not where I intended to go with this scripture but here I am and maybe it will help someone.  As a child it was my mother who was abusive and beat the daylights out of me at least several times a day. She called me bad names and said she wished I had never been born. I know I had it easy because I have heard of circumstances much worse than mine.

Despite what she did to me I had a father who loved the Lord and taught me to forgive. He showed me that her behavior had nothing to do with me. So what I learned to do was to stay out of her way… I learned to love her at a distance. When I saw the signs that she was going to start in on me I found an excuse to leave the room or the house. Sometimes I couldn’t get away and then I took the beating. And yes, I thought terrible things about her, but Dad said I had to let it go because anger would canker and destroy my soul. He was right about that.

Maybe next time I can write the blog I intended to write today.