We Are Loved

So after a week of practicing the Love Dare, I have come to realize that it all boils down to this:

We are perfectly loved and accepted just as God created us to be.

It's only when we don't accept this Truth that we start to become irritable, enraged, angry, and defensive. It's the reason we get frustrated when people don't listen to us, when we feel replaced or rejected, when we don't get the attention or recognition we desire, or when relationships don't turn out how we'd hoped. All of these are small messages that seep into our mind and spread the same lie: you are not loved.

People cannot give us the validation that only God can give us, so it would bode us well if we stopped expecting them to and turned our sole attention to God. For it is through Him that we get all capacity to love, forgive, have compassion, mercy, and grace, and all things good. How do we expect to love others if we don't first accept the love of God into our hearts? Without that, it is nearly impossible for us to experience patience, peace, or forgiveness.

Feeling unloved is the reason we get homesick, and not just for our earthly home, but for our heavenly home. It's the reason we don't always enjoy the presence of other people. It's the reason we struggle to achieve (or when we lose motivation). It's the central problem to all our emotional instability, our anxiety, fear, hopelessness, loneliness, depression, etc. Once we are aware of the lies that the world tells us through small insignificant actions, we can counter them with the solid Truth. That God loves us no matter if we fail or if we're rejected.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. 1 John 3:16

Lesson learned.