Love, Unconditionally

 One of my all time favorite feel-good movies is "Bridget Jone's Diary" with Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth. It's a story about two people who, through a series of funny mishaps and misunderstandings, realize that they're in love. There's a great scene where, in the beginning of the relationship, they have a conversation about all her faults and flaws, in which he agrees that she sometimes does ridiculous things and all the flaws she had just listed were in fact, part of her personality. In his very proper British vernacular, he then says: "What I'm trying to say, in my very inarticulate way, is it doesn't matter:
I like you, very much, just as you are". 

Isn't that really what we all want? To be loved and accepted "just as you are"?  I believe that most of us, despite the front that we put on for the world. are painfully aware of our faults and flaws. No doubt, we all have made mistakes and many of us carry regrets that we can't seem to fully let go of.  

Some may feel, like Renee Zellweger's character did, that they can't enter a relationship because their flaws make them unlovable. Others may believe that they can't come before God or enter a church because at some point in their upbringing they were taught that they weren't good enough. 

These thoughts make me feel sad, because I believe that our amazing Creator fills the universe with His/Her love, extravagantly, unconditionally and that each one of us is cherished, "just as we are".  If we come before God with open hearts, whatever our state of mind or degree of spiritual maturity, we are laid bare.... all our faults out there, in the open and it doesn't matter, because we are loved anyway.

It sounds too good to be true, right? We, as imperfect, flawed beings who continually mess up, are loved with no strings attached.  Amazingly, as we receive this love, we begin to change. We can rise to the occasion, so to speak and find ourselves in the process of becoming people who, in turn, are able to go out and love others unconditionally; to give them what we ourselves have received.

Those of us who are parents, or who work with children, know the value of positive reinforcement. It's not easy, but if we force ourselves to ignore the negative behavior and focus on loving the child and praising the good, they begin to change: slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, but because they crave love and approval, they will change their behavior to win it.  

Of course, I haven't always done this. I can look back and realize that, as a mother and a teacher, I have made mistakes, certainly. I've been guilty of letting my human nature get the better of me and have said and done things that were less than fully, unconditionally loving.  

But as I receive love and grace from God, I can begin to change, to bring more of that perfect love into my heart and back out into the world.

 This is my prayer for today.