‘Good at the Shootin’ Part’: Unconditional Love For Your Family and Friends
You know how good it feels to be accepted and affirmed when you don’t feel like you deserve it. There is a way to spread this good feeling … and it’s not by wanting or begging people to treat us like that. Read on about how you can be revolutionary.
Game Plan
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another … if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:10-12, 19 (ESV)
Time Out
Some of us (like me) love pressure, competition and seeing how well we can do. And … some of us don’t like the pressure of competition, always being measured. Regardless of our style, when it comes to love, none of us want to continually have to earn our acceptance. Being loved, accepted and affirmed without condition is a most awesome and needed thing.
Are you able to step out of your own shoes and become the giver of that sort of love and acceptance? If you can, you will be a deep blessing to others. You’ll profoundly improve your relationships … and that will turn out well for you as well.
“Regardless of our style, when it comes to love, none of us want to continually have to earn our acceptance.”
Go Deep
The power to affirm, accept and love people in this unconditional way is beyond us. It’s supernatural. It’s God’s love. God’s track record proved His love for us by having Jesus sacrifice himself for us while we were still rebellious, selfish and proud.
Stop taking God’s love for granted. Think about how He initiated unconditional love. Decide who needs your affirmation, acceptance and love … regardless of how they perform.
Start with your spouse and your children. Be radical like God. Love and accept one another unconditionally, apart from performance and measurements.
A hug, a kiss, a note, an encouraging word, an “I love you,” or forgiveness — be creative, be generous.
Live that love today — an unconditional, relationship-based value system.
Originally published at FacingtheBlitz.com.
Used by permission.
