In my short life, I've run into a handful of people I found difficult to love. And, because I'm selfish, in most cases I've been able to successfully avoid having to love on them. When I haven't been able to avoid it, I've just done a bad job at it.

Lately, though, I've realized that I'm headed to a life where loving on people very different from me is quite literally going to be my job. It's caused me to think a lot about what makes someone hard to love, and how I can renew my mind to be excited about loving others, even others different from me.

It follows, of course, that the best way to get good at that is to start now. I've begun to recognize the individuals that I naturally gravitate away from, and force myself to be conscious of when I'm doing that. Then I confront myself: how could I love him/her right now; is there a need I can meet or a conversation I can have; what about this person makes them hard for me to love, and what does that teach me about myself? It even causes me to wonder what I'm doing that makes it hard for other people to love me.

These aren't easy questions to ask, and they're even more difficult to answer. I'm answering a lot of difficult questions in this transitional season; both that I'm asking myself and that others ask of me.

I think this is all part of the adventure God has me in and I'm (truly) very excited about it. I'm excited about being a more lovable person. I'm really excited about being a more loving person! By the grace of God, one day I'll be a person who jumps at the chance to love someone that no one else is interested in loving.

Thanks for reading,
Heather