Living beyond myself
By Jessica Brodie
One of my kids, who’s a teen, has recently been struggling with taming her temper. Late last night, tears streaking her cheeks, she perched on the edge of the tub.
“Mom, every day I tell myself I’m not going to fight with you, and every day I can’t help myself.. And still you love me. I don’t even deserve you! I don’t deserve your love!”
Heart torn and swallowing back tears myself, I gazed at her. “Honey, I’m your mom. I love you no matter what. I forgive you no matter what. And—I understand.”
My words were complete truth. Sure, it hurts when my child rails at me with barbs, jabs, and scathing eye-rolls. It’s hard to be the parent and react with logic and compassion instead of stooping to kid-level and fighting back. But I love her no matter what, and I get it. I did the same thing at her age.
But when I became a mom, I stopped living just for me. Now, my life is bigger than just me and my wants and needs. It’s a sacrificial love, an unconditional love.
I’d go without eating for my kids—in fact, in my tougher days as a single mom, I have. I’d die for them. It’s just how it is.
There in that bathroom, it struck me that my words to her are the same our heavenly Father says to us over and over again. God loves us so much He made a way for us to find our eternal home in heaven—through His Son, Jesus. Jesus, the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6), paid our sin-debt when He taught us all He could and then died on the cross. Jesus gave His life for our sake, and then was raised to show us the way. We don’t deserve it, but it is what it is: a gift. An opportunity. A blessing.
My parental instinct, to live no longer just for myself but for my child, has a parallel in Scripture.
The apostle Paul reminded the early church in Corinth that Jesus Christ “died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15 CEB).
Jesus died for us all, Paul was saying, so we need to live not for ourselves but for Jesus.
When we live like Jesus, we love like Jesus—sacrificially. Without condition. Pointing always to God.
As a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, that means I must not only live and love sacrificially and unconditionally for my child. That’s just the start of my walk as a woman of God. I need to live and love like Jesus in all areas of my life: with my neighbor. With my “enemy.”
I need to live and love that way even when it hurts.
It’s one thing to love your kid—you’re invested in them. Perhaps, like me, you endured hours-long hard labor and childbirth and have spent years doing all you can to raise them right. It’s another thing to love the bully at school, the guy who robbed your house, the lady who cut you off in traffic, or the snotty clerk at the local superstore.
But we are called to live beyond ourselves, to live for Jesus. To love like Jesus—no matter what.
What does that mean to you?
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