Love is Tough

This morning I was resting and watching a Beth Moore video on YouTube entitled "How to Love Difficult People." Beth made an illustration that made a great deal of sense to my life right now. She referenced a porcupine...and told her listeners to picture that porcupine as that person in their life who was difficult to love. Why? Because at every encounter with that person you walk away feeling injured.

Let's face it, most of us have that one person who makes love tough. We expect them to act one way or treat us in a certain way--and they never seem to meet that expectation.

Beth put it this way: we have to release them from our expectation of them to act perfect like God.

Listening to her words took me back to some scriptures I meditated on yesterday: "Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited; does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs...." 1 Cor. 13:4-5


I had to eat those verses slowly yesterday after an encounter with someone who often makes me feel injured. The encounter was so painful I walked away hurt and had a good cry in my husband's arms. I LOVE this person so much--at least I say I do. But yet I can tell you every time that the words coming out of her mouth have hurt me. I can recount each time that we haven't agreed or I have felt belittled or unloved by her.

I say I love....

But I have a very vivid account of wrongs.

That's not love--at least, not a selfless love according to Paul.

I'm praying a lot these days about love and asking my Father to help me to love without account of wrong. I'm trying to release the person who pricks me from my expectations of perfection--chiding myself that I expect perfection from someone who isn't God; especially when I am so imperfect as well!

Love is tough. But I as am beloved by my Lord despite my own imperfections, so I must seek to love others--even when it's tough.

"now abide these three things: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." --1 Cor. 13:13