Lately I’ve been meditating on the quote, “Love respects the freedom of others. Love does not expect more from others than they can provide.” In relationships we can want more than another person is able to give. When my needs aren’t being met, I have a choice to be angry and resentful or take my feelings to prayer. By turning to prayer rather than my tricky emotions, God is healing the wounds of my heart that so desperately want respect, love and attention. Spiritually this allows me to love rather than resent and give mercy as I’ve been given mercy.
In its essence, love is an act of the will—more precisely, the willing of the good of the other as other. To love is really to want what is good for someone else and then to act on that desire.
Real love is a leaping outside of the narrow confines of my needs and desires, and an embrace of the other’s good for the other’s sake. It is an escape from the black hole of the ego, which tends to draw everything around it into itself.
Lord, thank you for showing me the path of love, a narrow and challenging one for sure but totally worth it. Love always wins. Amen
Smitten With Goodness 