Monthly Archives: April 2011

Whatever Wednesday: The weight of Love

As children, we experience love in it’s purest form. There are no expectations, no complicated over-thinking, no what if this or what if that, no he said, no she said. No scars or hurt to mar the existence of this love. Love just is. It’s light, airy, free, full of joy and happiness.

Then we become teenagers. At first, love is still like it was when we were children. And then.

Oh and then.

Then someone we love, for the first time, does not love us back. Or does something to hurt us. Or pushes us far away after saying they loved us. Or uses love to get us to do something they want. Suddenly, love finds itself with a weight attached to it. It may still float but instead of a cloud high in the sky, it’s a helium balloon with a weight tied to the string. The balloon wants to fly away but can’t escape the weight holding to down.

The weight holding you down can crush your chest, your soul, your mind. But recovery is possible. The hurt fades with time and the heart heals.

Then we fall in love time and again. Eventually the balloon you’re holding ends up with tangles, a ton of weights, and is an impossible conundrum. Try as you might, you just can’t untangle the string or break the weights free from the string.

The weight of love continues to increase and can drag us down with it if we are not careful.

But then, some of us are fortunate to meet someone amazing. Someone who helps us untangle the string. Who helps us remove the weights from the string.

So once again, our balloon flies high. Maybe even higher than it ever has in the past.

If we are really lucky, we find someone who allows our love to return to the love we knew as a child, someone who sets us free and allows us to float up into the sky like a white and fluffy cloud, happy and free to be ourselves. Someone who lets us just be and loves us for us despite all our inherent flaws and imperfections. A love which takes your breath away, fills you with anticipation, joy, freedom and is ultimately beyond description. It just is. It’s deep, breathtaking, enviable, and beyond containment.

This is the love we spend our lives chasing but only a few of us are fortunate to capture.

If you’ve found love like that, don’t let it go. No matter what.

#PPDChat Topic: When Life hands you lemons, it’s okay to scream first

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Faith & Motherhood: Introduction to The Shelter of God’s Promises Study

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A song of ascents.

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore. (Psalm 121, New International Version, ©2011)

Over the past few years I have lifted my eyes toward the heaven to plead for help. He has thrown a lot at us in a short seven years. Two episodes of Postpartum Mood Disorder, depression during pregnancy, relocating, a daughter with a cleft palate, an unexpected pregnancy, a totaled vehicle, jail, addiction recovery, and then there’s regular life on top of all of those extreme issues.

We have managed to come through all of it. Not unscathed, but still together. As a family. It is because He has carried us. Through all of this, He has been teaching us. Perhaps we are a bit slow to catch on but with each new challenge a wisdom from our previous situation has been applicable. Through Him, we have learned that God is truly our “shade at your right hand.” He is the reason we have been kept from true harm, the reason we have been safe even in the midst of what has seemed like hell.

Along the way, He has allowed us to witness the beauty of our daughter’s growth as she overcomes the challenges faced because of her cleft palate. The strength our five year old holds within her is more beautiful than anything I have ever or ever will witness. The determination she shows as she speaks each word with deliberate precision is more determination than most people ever hold within them in their entire lives.

Within the past few weeks, Sheila Walsh has been promoting her new book, The Shelter of God’s Promises, on Twitter.

I realized that the past few years have literally been lived within that shelter provided so unfailingly by God. Yes, it’s been hard. Yes, there have been times when the wind has whipped at us, when the rain has driven through us and chilled us to the bone, but we have had shelter. We have been safe. Fed, comforted, loved, carried, and protected even when we have not been able to feel His presence. We have not been alone. God has been there, always. He always will be there. He will never forsake you, even if you forsake Him. And that? Is a very powerful realization.

I have only read the introduction of The Shelter of God’s Promises but it struck home. Sheila talks about a trip she and two friends took into a mountain. In the middle of the night, a mountain sheep decided to sleep on top of her tent, causing her to seek shelter elsewhere in the middle of storm. But in the morning when she awoke, she was greeted by a gorgeous sunrise and day. God put her there to see the beauty he created, to show her that no matter what, He was her shelter. I am blessed to have the same shelter in Him. Grateful, beyond belief.

Where is your shelter? Do you feel comforted by His presence even in the face of all that swirls around you? Is there something you could do to move closer to living in the Shelter of God’s Promises? What one thing will you do this week to move closer to the shelter He offers you?