After a tragic event in my life many years ago I had to wrestle with both Loving and Hating my father at the same time. For years it tore me up inside and I thought that because of his actions it was wrong for me to love him. That the love I had for him was wrong and made me a bad person. It was after years of wrestling with my feelings that I finally came to the understanding that God teaches us to love everyone. That the love I had for my father because he was my father was okay. It was his actions that I hated and that was okay as well. God teaches us that we are to love the sinner (which we all are) but not the sin. It was so freeing to me to come to this realization. I was able to love my father again freely and unabashedly.
Once again this past week I had to put this belief in action with a family member. My sister and I have not been as close I would have liked in years. In fact she has hardly spoken to me at all in the last year. Last Thursday I found out why she has not taken or return my phone call for most of the last year. She has sinned big time and she is having to pay for the price of her sin. What she has done in no way lessons my love for her. But I also do not at all condone what she has done and agree that she will have to pay the price for her sin.
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1 comment:
And it seems so crazy, doesn't it - to be able to love someone whose action(s) you literally hate? The fact that it is family just makes it doubly hard.
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