Receiving the Love of God (guest blog)

Read this today and it really hit a cord with me. So much so that I decided that my readers needed to hear what was said as well.


Receiving The Love of God by Cassandra Stafford

My husband tells me I'm beautiful all the time.
I rarely believe him.

He admires me at the most peculiar moments.
While I'm still in my jammies...hair unbrushed...no makeup...while I'm sipping my coffee...

He's not admiring all of the undone...
He's not noticing my flaws...

He's noticing the blush of my cheeks.
My smooth skin (thank God for nice skin!!)
He's liking my dark brown eyes.

Me?
All I notice are my flaws.
In my mind, those things are enough to drown out the good. As if they cancel each other out.

He sees my curves and wants to hug me.
He hugs me tight and tells me I "feel good".
I --9 times out of 10--will respond with "yeah, good and huge!"
And he just sighs with disgust.

Why?
Cause I am not receiving his love for me when I always have some comeback to his praises.

So what if my body is not magazine cover quality? He and I both know it's not what it used to be. But does that mean it deserves to be ridiculed?

It goes deeper than outward beauty too.

Too many of us reject who we are.
We hate our personalities. We despise so much about how God crafted us and shaped us.
The clay tells the potter He has designed us all wrong...

But, what would happen if we took a bold leap of faith and started keeping our mouths (and minds) quiet when our husbands tell us we are lovely? What if we tried to believe it for once? What if when our children tell us we are "the best moms they ever had" (my girls favorite compliment) we didn't immediately start mentally recounting our every failing?

We could give a whole lot more love...to our husbands and children...
to our neighbors and friends...

Because we cannot give something we do not have. We cannot give love that we will not receive. We cannot offer peace we do not have.

And true peace, true love starts with receiving the love of God toward ourselves.

Despite our faults, shortcomings and imperfections.
What if--for once--we truly lived and acted like Jesus really did bring peace between God and us? What if, when He whispers to our hearts that He loves us...we swallowed hard and said "Yes Lord, I receive it. And, I love you too."