Love Bears All Things?

Love bears all things?

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13).

Most of us grew up and were never taught to say, “Please, forgive me.” Perhaps we were taught to say, “I’m sorry”, but we said it so often that at times it lost it’s meaning. We eventually learned that to ask for forgiveness was a submissive act, and as we grew up, our ego and ignorance kept us from asking for forgiveness. Because, come on, we are always right in what we do and say, right?

Some say that the people we hurt the most are those who we love the most. We have either hurt them by saying something degrading, looking down at them, making them feel unworthy of our love, abandoning them, or being unfaithful. Personally, I had never met so many women who are single mothers like I have here in Puerto Rico. It’s unbelievable. And my question to one of them was, “Why?” She responded with a broken-hearted expression, “Because most of us have been cheated on.”

Let me tell you about the story of Toyi.

She is one energetic 70+-year-old lady. A group of us, college students, were finishing our lunch after church, when all of the sudden I see her wiping off our table like Karate Kid was waxing that car in the movie. I invited to stop (so I can finish my lunch in peace), and asked her to give us some advice on dating. She smiled, stopped, and said, “Let me tell you my story.”

“My mother, my church, my pastor, my friends, and family told me, ‘do not marry him, Toyi! He is no good for you. He is not a Christian, doesn’t have the same beliefs as you do, and he is going to make your life impossible.’’’ –She said. “But I loved him, guys. I liked him so much. I didn’t make it easy for him though. He had to wait 9 months until he kissed me; he stole it. I was irresistible. You should see some of the pictures when I was young, Sergio. I was hot. I don’t have much anymore, but I had it going on!”

“So I married the guy. I was crazy about having a child, and for some reason I just couldn’t. Every time I got pregnant I had a miscarriage. 3 years went by, and one day he approached me and said, ‘love, I’ve cheated on. She is pregnant.’” I socked him in the face, guys. I just couldn’t resist. He didn’t say or do anything because he deserved it. I was heartbroken.”

           

“Long story short, guys, when the baby was eight months old, the mother of that child came to my door to tell my husband and I that she could not take care of the baby anymore. So I decided to take the fruit of the unfaithfulness of my husband, and raised him as my own. Today, he is a grown-married-Christian man, and the father of two beautiful children. I never had a child of my own, but I love him as if he really was.”

So I had to ask, “Toyi, what drove you to forgive your husband, forgive that woman, and take that child as your own?” –She looked at me and said, “Sergio, two reasons. First, I understood that it was the consequence of my disobedience by marrying the guy God did not wanted me to marry. Secondly, I loved that man with all my heart. It was a struggle, but I begged the Lord to help me forgive Him as He had forgiven me all my sin. God help me He did. I came to the point that I saw the child as the product of our marriage. That boy became our son. It was through God’s love that I was able to forgive my husband, forgive that woman, and love their son. Today, I am still married to that man, still love him with all my heart, and we are going onto our 60^th anniversary. We are one happy couple.”

Why do I write this? Because the Lord wants you to forgive that person who has hurt you so much. He wants you to forgive as you have been forgiven by Him. He knows what it feels like to be betrayed, to be abandoned, to be mistreated, and to be cheated-on. He knows, and even so, He has chosen to forgiven you and look at you as if you have never sinned!

Hey, love bears all things!

Do you really love God?

“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these” (Mark 12:28-31).