Love and Forgiveness

Yesterday while driving my Husband and I began a having a deep conversation about love which somehow ended with us discussing forgiveness. 
To start let's explore love for a moment. Love is defined by Merriam-Webster as: 

Strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties;  attraction based on sexual desire;   affection and tenderness felt by lovers; affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests.

Many people are suffering all because of the modern day definition of the "L" word. Here lies the problem, we have allowed society to give us a warped reality of what real love is. We are getting caught up in the latest reality shows and what television has glamorized as a weak depiction. To understand what love is we must first understand the one who created it. 

I can talk about all scripture pertaining to love but I don't want to settle with my focus there. Let's talk about the display of love Christ displayed for us on the Cross. I know not one person who walks this earth today that was physically there when Christ was imprisoned over  Barabbas. He endured a suffering far greater than I could or would ever want to experience. Blameless, beaten, and nailed to a cross all for us;  a people He hadn't even known or seen.
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If Christ can endure why are we so quick to give up when we feel we've been done wrong. Why are we not able to forgive? Yet we claim that we walk in His ways. (HA!) Be it marriage or relationship (family) we have got to do better at walking in the ways of our greatest example. Don't get me wrong because of Who He was, He could have easily gotten down and walked away BUT HE DID NOT! He even displayed the greatest example of forgiveness when he asked "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" ( Luke 23:34)
Today, I challenge those of you who feel that your marriage or relationship, is broken beyond repair to look it it through the eyes of Christ and understand that true and real love doesn't have conditions tied to it. You are to love regardless if you see eye to eye and forgive even when the offense doesn't warrant it. 

Be Blessed
​Tanaka C