REAL LOVE IS HARD WORK!

I once observed a group of children playing together in a park. One of them came with a pack of cookies, and took his time to stay apart while eating it. I could see the other kids shooting hungry glance at the boy that had the cookies, but he didn’t really mind them. He was wearing a frown and showed everyone that he didn’t welcome their interference.

He finished his cookies all alone.

Then he ran to the group and they all started to play together again.

About 45 minutes after, a parent of one of the other kids came along and brought some snacks for her son. It was a big pack of chocolates. After the parent left for the adjoining hall, the real drama began.

The boy who ate his cookies all alone suddenly became friendly with the boy with that huge pack of chocolate. The cookie boy, whose cookies are now finished, started to crack jokes with the chocolate boy. When the chocolate boy refused to laugh at his jokes, he began to laugh at his own jokes. It was time for the chocolate boy to wear a frown.

Then it happened as I knew it would. The cookie boy thew all pretense to the trash bin and asked for some chocolate candies. The chocolate boy, who obviously had been waiting for him to ask, reminded him of how he didn’t give anyone of his own cookies.

The cookies boy walked away and joined the bigger group. I then heard him tell his ‘friends’ how selfish the chocolate boy was. “I don’t want to be friends with selfish people,” he said. I was amazed that this little boy specifically used the word, “selfish.”

Then a girl reminded the cookie boy that he also didn’t give anyone of his own cookies.

His answer really cracked me up. “It was my breakfast!. If it wasn’t, I would have shared it with you all!”

I then continued to observe as the cookie boy persuaded the other kids not to play with the chocolate boy again. “He is very selfish,” he said. I actually saw as these other kids picked up the word, and began to call the chocolate boy selfish, and then told him they weren’t going to play with him again. It quickly became a gang-up.

I could see as the most selfish of the bunch branded another one selfish just because he couldn’t have someone else’s’ chocolates..

That was the point at which I stepped in. I brought them all together and gave them some lesson on love and generosity.

LOVE CAN BE LABORIOUS…

We love to sing about it. We love to receive it, and we are quick to judge those who don’t give it. Yet we do what we condemn others of doing.

Love is something everyone wants, but few want to give.

I have observed that people generally judge others as unloving, but when they themselves are unloving, they have an excuse for it.

Why? Because loving is hard work.

It is easy to love when things are easy. It is easy to love those who appreciate you. But the real test of love comes when the unloving and the unlovable need to be loved.

I was once totally arrested by a statement that Paul the apostle made about this. “God will not forget your work and labor of love as you serve people,” he said. (Hebrews 6:10).

In that verse, we can see two things God won’t forget. Our works, and our labor of love.

So there is something called labor of love. This is the love you give when it is not easy; when those you love are not only unappreciative, but also waste your efforts.

Real loving is real work. The Greek word from which Labor is translated communicates the idea of toil, and pain, as if from a cut. It is a figurative term showing us that real loving can sometimes be painful. In the labor of love, you may be disappointed by the most unexpected people. You may be discouraged by the people from whom you expect encouragement.

Yet we are told in the next verse to continue diligently in the labor of love until the end. That is the spirit of Christ who said about the people nailing him to the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Are you like the chocolate boy who saw his own pack of snacks as the perfect opportunity to get back at the cookies boy? Love will give others some chocolates, even when they didn’t give their own cookies. Leave vengeance to the Lord.

“See that none of you repays another with evil for evil, but always aim to show kindness and seek to do good to one another and to everybody.” (1 Thessalonians 5:15 AMP)

Are you discouraged because you are being repaid with evil for good? If you are a child of God, understand that Jesus your Lord walked the same path. He loved till the end, and was glorified. You also must love till the end, and just like Jesus, there is a throne for you.