"Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself - and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is." -Jim Morrison
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." -Lao Tzu
Someone sent me these quotes today. I appreciate that they were trying to help. I am now trying to decide if I believe these quotes at all. Right now I don't think that I do. I have been reminded in the past couple of days that there can be danger in believing that one is loved and also in believing that one can love. We are human and I do not know that we are capable of really loving. I can see how badly I screw up attempting to love. I claim that I love deeply, but I just don't seem to get it right. Whether it be my appearance or the words I offer or even my presence, I seem to bumble about and just cause problems. I want to really offer love, but I mess it up every time and those around me pay such a price. As I was pondering my shortfalls today I wondered if Christ ever felt like this when he was on earth. I claim him as my savior and I tell others that struggle that he has felt their pain and confusion and frustration. So...does that apply to me? Did Jesus ever feel incredibly ugly and hopelessly clumsy? Did he ever have times when he questioned his every move and word that came out of his mouth? Did he feel a desperation about walking out the door of his home for fear of having to face others and possibly at worst, cause them pain and at best, be thought a fool? I simply cannot picture this when I think of him. I suppose that I am going to have to ask God about this and try to get a sense of whether or not I can find the humility to believe that Christ does indeed know about feeling ridiculous and insecure. Hmmmm...guess I better hit the books and my knees...again...
"People are strange" is the next song title you should blog.
ReplyDeleteI would say to the people who make you feel that your appearance, words and presence are a problem, that THEY are the problem. It is also very difficult to nurture any depth of love towards such people if you have to be around them all the time. I can only love such people from a distance or with frequent breaks from being around them. I hope that I am the kind of friend to you that Jim Morrison describes. I have a few such friends in my life, including my husband. The older I get, the more I realize the importance of the first commandment: to love God with all my heart, mind and strength. I also try to accept love in the form that other people offer it.
ReplyDeleteI believe with all my heart and soul that the Savior does understand everything we feel and experience and that somehow He and Heavenly Father are constantly aware of us and rooting for us. I do not know how this is done. I have a hard time thinking of Christ being unsure of Himself, especially as an adult, but I can see Him feeling hesitance to go out and face other people, knowing that He will be misunderstood (sometimes intentionally) and rejected. We know from modern revelation that He learned line upon line, precept on precept. But we do not know the details of how He arrived at His knowledge of His identity and mission by the time He was twelve. He could easily have felt akward as a child before He came to this knowledge. Children can sometimes be cruel to each other, and He may have been the object of such cruelty. He probably had typical teenage temptations and challenges, but He never gave in to them. His love for the Father and for us overcame these feelings as an adult in the prime of His life with a specific mission. Those are my thoughts.