Love people where they are

I was reading to my kids the other night and they were not into it. I mean Laney was all over the place with random questions and Noah really wasn't even paying attention. I trudged through it and finished tucking them into bed and left frustrated.

The next day I was trying to show them letters on a paper because they asked me to write out their names for them so they could practice their names. But after barely getting it written on the paper for them they had moved onto something else. My day continued with similar situations of them not staying focused. I had had enough and put them in their rooms and jumped in the shower to pray and think. I do a lot of praying in the shower if you haven't noticed.

I was venting to God about the kids and the day and He showed a picture. It was a picture of Jesus surrounded by kids and He was telling them a story. And at first I saw it the "perfect way" because come on...it was Jesus! But then I saw it the way He wanted me to. The kids were fighting about who got to sit on His lap, who got to sit next to Him and in front of Him. And then I saw kids looking around and poking each other as Jesus was talking to them.

And at that very moment I realized that it wasn't about how the kids were acting but how He responded to them. He loved them where they were, not where they should have been. Oh MY...that truth hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized that I have been loving people conditionally. I tried to change them into what I thought they needed to be in order to love them fully. I was so humbled at that very moment...and still am. I asked God to give me His love for people...to love them where they are not where they should be to me. Really when you think about it we all fall short and struggle with something so why not in our pursuit to be more like Jesus, we love like Him!