Fully Loved

Exactly four years ago, I wrote a blog called Transformational Love.

I had just graduated from my Positive Psychology program and my mentor shared a quote that has stayed with me for years.

“Accepting someone exactly as they are, and as they are not, is the possibility of love.”

I am convinced this is the true definition of unconditional love, the greatest need of all human beings.

With this mindset of love, it cannot fail.

I see myself quite often, practicing love in ways that accept others as they are, but also assessing what they are not and then trying to “help” them in those areas, according to a standard that comes within myself.

This has proved to be frustrating and can lead to performance driven relationships in romance, parenting, colleagues, friendships.

I realized it is love that empowers change, genuine and true, sprouted from the soil of acceptance and love.

It can take longer to bear fruit, but the fruit is organic and nutrient rich.

Freedom. Growth. Commitment. Encouragement.

Consequently, I ask myself; “Have I loved myself like this, or do I constantly

look at what I am not, compare and “crack the whip” to do better, be better,

look better?”

Can I be free to be real, see myself as God sees me and allow love to move

me forward, grow, accept challenges and pick myself up when I fall, laugh

and start over?

Last month, as we celebrated my mom’s 88th birthday. The next morning she joyfully shared:

“I feel fully loved.”

This is what our world craves.

Love that transforms and never ends.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails. I Corinthians 13: