As I was eating my breakfast this morning, I reflected on three words. Hard to love.
When I walked to Victory Home for the first time, all of my teammates had already been paired with children and I heard stories about their adoration for these beautiful children. When I told our contact I wasn’t paired with a child, she was surprised. She looked in the other room and said “I need someone with extreme patience. Are you up for it?”
I came to India to serve. In any way possible. So I said, “yes”.
When I walked up to the room, I definitely had expectations of what this relationship would hold; ones that I didn’t even knew I had. One of my biggest expectations was rooted in the word patience. I thought that meant I would be dealing with a child that was immobile or one that needed physical therapy assistance. Within seconds of the Special Ed teacher introducing us, a plastic cup bopped me on the head. A couple seconds later, she was biting my shirt and tugging at my skirt. I began to understand what was meant by patience.
This beautiful girl has autism but at times it was hard to love her like Jesus. Especially when my body hurt or my glasses were being ripped from my face. So I confronted Jesus about it; and He reminded me of my EXPECTATIONS. He reminded me that I need to let them go and live life open handedly. Reflect on that image for a second, open handed. Its a beautiful posture but one that seems difficult maybe even uncomfortable. So often God calls us into uncomfortable situations.
I tell this story to you now after my team has returned back to the States because it applies here too. How often do we encounter people that are hard to love?
The person on the road that cut you off.
Your professor at school.
Your co-worker that rubs you the wrong way with every encounter.
Your family member.
The doctor who seems a little impatient with your concerns.
All these people and many more we might come in contact on a day to day basis can be labeled as HARD TO LOVE. Yet we are still called to love them anyway. We are called to let go of our expectations, even the one we didn’t know we had, and love them anyway.
When I let go of my expectations with my child it became easy to love her like Jesus.
Ask yourself, is there someone in your life who you would label as “Hard to Love”? If yes, do you have expectations for them that you are not presenting to Jesus? I encourage you to do so because the Creator is waiting for you to take those from your hands and free you.
Aud Smo
“You know you had expectations when they go unmet.” – Speaker at Training Camp
