Written by: Mrs. Perman
After an emotional day last week I was sitting on the porch in the sunshine with my kids and I wrapped my arms around my oldest daughter Mikayla and said, “I just need you to know how much I love you and I know it’s been a hard day but tomorrow will be better.”
In the background I heard sniffling and whimpering and I turned to see Emilee, my three-yr-old, slumped in the corner crying in the dark shadows of the porch behind me.
“Emilee, what is wrong? Why are you crying?”
“You don’t love me! You are loving sister and you don’t love me!”
So I got up and picked her up and tried to explain to her that just because she saw me loving on her sister didn’t mean that I didn’t love her. That just because I was focused on Mikayla didn’t mean that I was mad at her. That in fact, had she been sitting in the sunshine right next to me, I would have wrapped my arms around her at the same time and told her the same thing.
How many of you are slumped down in a dark shadow right now, wondering why you can’t just feel a little bit of peace? Viewing the world through the lens of the love that you are NOT getting? You might be feeling unloved by parents, or siblings, or friends or boyfriends/girlfriends. You may have a hard time even loving yourself.
And that lack of love snowballs into how you feel about God. “God why don’t you love me? I see you blessing all those around me, and here I sit in the shadows just wishing you would love me!”
I feel that way often. We all do. Even as I sit here writing this I feel as though my life is spinning.
But. BUT. If I step right out of the shadow into sunshine and sit myself down right next to Jesus, I can feel his arms wrap tight around me. I can choose to quit crying, step into the warmth of the light that He offers, and seek to know how much He cares for me.
Boy does He care. The magnitude of His care and the breadth of his embrace was stretched out farther than I could imagine and long before I ever knew.
Zephaniah 3:17 (ERV)
17 The Lord your God is with you. He is like a powerful soldier. He will save you. He will show how much he loves you and how happy he is with you. He will laugh and be happy about you.
He will save you. He will love and show you how happy He is with you. He will laugh and be happy about YOU.
He is my faithful Father, calling me out of the dark Night cannot whisper away what he said in the light
(Rita Springer, Never Lost)
Let HIM call you out of the dark.
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