Because God Loves Me As I Am = God Loves Others As They Are

There are so many different kinds of people in the world – and really, aren’t we all glad about that?  We are different physically, emotionally, intellectually and have different strengths and weaknesses, different perceptions and beliefs, different desires and aspirations. So when I use the positive self-talk that God Loves Me As I Am - and with His grace, actually believe it – it is only fair that I remind myself that God also loves others as they are.

I desperately need my Blessed Mom to remind me of this.  One of my major weaknesses is a strong desire to be “unique”. Following close on its heels is a sense of superiority. So it is important for me to accept that when Jesus gave His Mother to his disciple John at the foot of the Cross to be John’s mother, Mary then became everyone’s mother – not just mine and not just the mother of the people that choose to believe it is so. She loves, nurtures, and protects me, my whole family, my “difficult neighbors”, and the individuals listed in the police blotter of my local paper.  And if she is carrying me, she’s carrying them.  And if she’s carrying all of us, we have a lot more in common than I tend to realize.

What is the difference between Mom’s love for those who recognize and accept it and for those who don’t?  There is no difference. She loves us all the same. What is the difference between the person who realizes the treasure they have in our Heavenly Mother and the person who doesn’t?  Most likely, it is the difference between someone with hope and someone without hope. Hope versus despair. Hope versus anger. Hope versus confusion. And hope is infectious. If we have hope, it will spread.

So, I am hopeful. I am hopeful today because someone I love very much, who sees and experiences things very differently than I, is in Blessed Mother’s arms.  And as Mother’s Day gifts go, this note from that special someone is an all-time favorite:

... but He [God] looks on me with a tender love and of course wants to embrace me with more than I can imagine. I believe this, I do. And as rough as it is sometimes for I feel I fall so much more often these days...when I get picked up I see that He does not love perfection. He loves me.

Farrah C.