[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Saturday, February 8, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day to most of you on this Saturday, at least as this is being written.  I hope that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that you all are doing well.

Again, many of you read this last year, but there are some who haven't, so for them will post the Daily Thought message again.

The name Imaculee Ilibagiza is probably not known to any of you; it certainly isn't known to me.  However he/she wrote a very powerful article a little while ago entitled "Love Should Be Unconditional," rendered as follows:

It seems to me that most of us are always looking for ways to improve our lives and become better people.  Nothing helps me to accomplish that more than paying attention to the lives of others and learning from their mistakes and success stories.  Recently I heard a story that both moved me and taught me an important life lesson that I'd like to share with all of you.

The story belongs to a man I befriended not long ago.  We were discussing the importance of family love when he told me, with sadness, that one of his greatest regrets was the way he and his brother had treated their stepmother.  Their birth mother had died when the boys were quite young and their father remarried a woman who was kind and caring.  "She really was a good woman," my friend confided to me.  "But no matter how much love and tenderness she bestowed on us, my brother and I didn't believe her affection for us was real.  We were too proud and selfish to accept her motherly love and, when we behaved badly and she disciplined us to teach us right from wrong, we resented her bitterly.  We were often mean to her and never returned her love."

My friend then told me how ashamed he felt years later when the stepmother passed away and left the two boys all of her money, property, and worldly goods.  "Not only that," my friend continued, "she also left us a note reminding us that she had always loved us dearly and would be watching over my brother and I from Heaven."

With tears streaming down his cheeks, my friend said:  "That's when I finally realized how deeply my stepmother loved us.  I was heart sick, I wanted so badly to apologize to her, thank her, and tell her I loved her too.  But it was too late; she was dead and gone!"

I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "It is never too late to apologize, even to the dead.  Thank her in your prayers and know that her love for you was unconditional, and that kind of love is its own reward."

Today my friend and his brother are grown men with children of their own.  He worries that, when he disciplines his boys, that they will resent him the way he resented his stepmother.  "Sometimes my children don't think that I love them when I correct them, but I must correct them for their own good because I love them.  My heart is now humble like my stepmother's was--I love my children and do not require their love in return.  I can only hope that one day they will understand."

The story touched me on many levels, but mostly for its powerful message that true love comes from a humble heart and is always unconditional.  We must love people even when they resent our love and respond to our kindness with hostility, ingratitude, or even cruelty.  One thing I know for sure:  we always end up regretting the hurt we do to others, but we never regret being good to somebody, loving honestly, acting with kindness, and offering forgiveness.  And if we do regret doing wrong, we can take comfort knowing Jesus' divine mercy is there to rescue us.

We are sinners, but when we humbly acknowledge our sins, we are loved and cared for even more by our Heavenly Father.

And there you have Imaculee's article which I hope was both a blessing and something for you to ponder on this Saturday.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, tomorrow there will be another Daily Thought message and article for you.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul