No More Perfect MomsНамуна

Love. It’s a word easily thrown around in our everyday language. We say things like, “I love that movie!” or “I love chocolate ice cream!” or “I’d love to know you better.” However, the use of love in those statements doesn’t even come close to the way God loves us. His love is perfect because it is unchanging and unconditional. Even in our best moments, we have a long way to go to learn to love like God loves.

God’s love is unchanging. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less. That’s really hard for most of us to understand because we haven’t been loved in a similar way in our human relationships. Human feelings complicate human expressions of love. Have you ever said, “I love him, but I don’t like him right now.” I know I’ve said that about my husband or each one of my children at one time or another.

Guess what? God never says that about you or me. He would never say that no matter what we did because His love is perfect. His feelings about us don’t differ when we’ve had a good mothering day or when we’ve blown it with our kids. His love simply does not change.

Yet there’s more good news! God’s love is also unconditional. God doesn’t put conditions on us that require us to “earn” His love. He doesn’t say, “Now, Jill, if you don’t yell at your kids today, I’ll give you My love. But if you do yell at your kids, you’re on your own and I won’t be showing you My love today.” God loves you and me whether we’re having a good mothering day or a bad one. That’s not an excuse for us to do wrong. In an effort to protect our hearts and the hearts of our husband and children, God certainly wants us to make right choices. But if we blow it, we can trust that God will continue to surround us with love, offer forgiveness, and provide a second chance. He won’t withdraw His love from us.

Unconditional love stays steady despite the circumstances. It believes the best and sees the loved one for who that person can be, rather than who that person is right now. Much of the time, love is also undeserved. That’s what makes God’s love for us a perfect love. Let’s stop trying to “be perfect” and instead embrace “being perfected,” as we learn to love more like Jesus each and every day.