Hello Unity Friends and Family,
"Am I or Am I Not Loved?"
I’ve told this story a few times lately, but it bears repeating in print. A couple of weeks ago I went to open the refrigerator door and the handle had schmootz all over it. David gets busy cooking and he doesn’t think to wash his hands before handling things. I looked at that door handle that day and I wanted to cry. I saw clearly that for the past sixteen years I had been telling myself that I was not loved because there was schmootz on something. My thinking had been, “If he loved me, he wouldn’t do that. He would wash his hands first.” “If he loved me, he wouldn’t leave crumbs on the floor or counters.” “If he loved me he wouldn’t…!!!”
I was wrong. He does love me and that other stuff has nothing to do with it.
That’s how many of us treat ourselves. We say “I’m not loved because…!!!” Many bring God into it. “If God loved me/us, God wouldn’t allow this or that to happen.”
I’m beginning to see with much more clarity that I don’t love myself nearly enough. If I truly loved myself, I would never hurt myself or another. My days of gossip and self-condemnation would be over. My arrogance in thinking that I know better than God would be laughable. (Not that it isn’t already, but I wouldn’t take it so seriously.) My complaints would be seen in a whole new light and my proclamations of misery would be silenced.
I am loved. You are loved. They are loved. Let’s start affirming that for ourselves and our neighbors as well as those in the news. “YOU ARE LOVED and I am willing to know that for you. You don’t have to behave that way. I know because I KNOW THAT WE ARE LOVED!!!” Yell that at your TV and radio. Yell that at the crazy drivers on the road.
So let’s know together that we are loved and that way, we’ll never be able to think that we are not loved…no matter how much schmootz is on the handle.
Love,
Rev. Shawn