Love

I confess that I've been blind

Open up this heart of mine

Show me how to love

Farther than this world I know

Take me where you want to go

Show me how to love

Sidewalk Prophets "Show Me How To Love"

It's hard to love everyone, let alone like everyone.  As a teenager I experienced what it was like to be unloved for who you are and had experienced conditional love.  I didn't realize how common conditional love was in my life: my dad and my nanny are (present tense) people who only know conditional love, as a teenager you only know friendship on conditional terms, and I witnessed my immediate and extended family express conditional love all the time.  I came to a conclusion one afternoon: of all these people in my life (and this took a year of therapy to conclude) my madre is the only person who has expressed unconditional love to me... I compared her actions and kindness to all the other people (minusing the whole Mother's Love thing) and she was unconditional to SO many people in her life, myself included.  No matter what I did she still expressed her unconditional love. 

Looking back, it must have been hard.  There were a lot of hurtful things I've said and things I had lied about.  I experienced a lot of pain when I realized this, because wasn't right that I did such things and she just kept loving me in return.  Upon reflecting about all of this, I had asked her for forgiveness and had apologized.  I then realized that I had to start forgiving my dad and my nanny for their actions as well.  Afterall, my madre forgave me.  I needed to forgive too (and let go of the hurt). 

Since then, I've done my best to love others.  Loving certain family members has been hard, but I just keep prayng for them.  Loving my colleagues for their best qualities, as opposed to their worst qualities has been rough.  I pray for them too.  Loving my friends despite some of their decisions has been a challenge, but I get over it.

Everyone who crosses my path, I make the genuine effort to offer my unconditional love.  There are people who I have met that have never experienced any sort of unconditional love.  They think they've made so many mistakes and have said and done too much to deserve an unconditional love.  But once I started to take my faith more seriously, I learned more about the ultimate unconditional love. 

No matter where I was in my day, I'd speak the desires of my heart, pray, confess my wrongs and ask to see the right... and this Love has never changed.  This Love is the same as it was yesterday, as it is today, and as it will be tomorrow.  I'm accepted and loved despite my wrongs. 

When I first heard this song my heart melted... I ask to be shown love everyday.  I wake up asking that I'm given what it takes to best represent His love throughout my day.

it's important to love.

more important to love unconditionally.

and to experience the ultimate love of Jesus Christ.