Prayers

#636 - The Perfect Lover Had No List
Volume 2 - Prayers to Love Our Neighbor

Dear Father, we look for just the right person to love. We have a list in our mind of what that person should look and dress like. They are to have a certain kind of job and make a specific amount of money. They are to have specific character and personality traits. If a person meets these criterion, or comes close, they become the target of our affections. Our list determines whether someone remains a stranger, becomes an acquaintance, a good friend, a best friend, or a lover. In other words, a list such as this makes love conditional and measurable, perhaps even quantifiable. However, Your Word describes that true love is unconditional. Since true love is patient, it implies the person we are to love is difficult to get along with. Since love is kind, it implies they have flaws that repel us. Since love is not easily angered and it keeps no records of wrongs, it implies a person's behavior bothers us repeatedly. In other words, the list should not exist. Love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres is a love that is not bounded or confined by a list of criteria. The kind of love we are to offer has the growth of the person's character in mind, touched by our unconditional love. Why do we create lists? We are our own god. Another person should please us and meet our expectations. Father, I'm hurting today because I have not been able to find someone I can truly love. Maybe I haven't found someone because I've missed the entire point of true love. Love doesn't hold out for someone who has certain traits. Love loves someone just the way they are. In fact, love at its best loves someone at their worst. The most beautiful kind of love may very well be for the people who would end up at the bottom of our list. Father, help me to love like Jesus Christ does. Amen.

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