Acceptance of love

Eleanor Roosevelt one said, "No on can make you feel inferior without your consent."  Truth is we give consent, we often invite feelings of inferiority upon ourselves that we may hide or drift into the mind.  Jesus taught us to "Love our neighbor as ourself," yet we often overlook the self part and focus on the aspect of others.   I am not saying we must be boastful of prideful rather a simple humble acceptance of the love deep with our very being.   Knowledge of the heart is raw, I dare not say emotion for that word has many negative connotations, so I say raw feelings.  This word, too, limits our understanding of the power of the heart for people are often labeled "emotional", "weepy", or "unstable" when they become focused on the heart and let the truth of the heart speak.  Somewhere along the way showing emotions other than anger and disappointment have become paired with weakness thus the majority of people spend time hiding the voice of their heart, hiding the raw, innate knowledge of the heart for fear that others may see into their very being, hence they become susceptible to mockery and vulnerable to hurt.  Many artists have written songs about heartbreak, many have gone so far as to say that it was better to have loved and lost love then to never have loved at all.  Our humanity brings with it pain, brings with it sadness, disappointment, even brokenness for perfection lies only in the Father.  If so many people sing about it is better to have love and lose it then to never have found love, wow love must be special and this is imperfect love from a fellow imperfect human.  Can you imagine the feeling of perfect love?  We can for we know the offering of the Father is this perfect love, unconditional, limitless love that embraces our everything making us to feel whole, making us to feel alive, excited for the dawn of the day.  We come to find that even in our darkest hour, love our strength, love our support, love that which we long for and are granted by our God of love.  But we quickly fall to the mind our kryptonite for it keeps us wandering, searching for logical theorems, proven theories and attempts to hide our imperfections through stoic facades.  Daring not show the raw truth of the heart, we draw back the tear of a painful memory or a joyful memory which, too, brings tears.  We learn how to rationalize the few "slips" of tears and proceed through life as brave warriors incapable of "debilitating emotions".  Hiding pain only creates more pain, it is only in the envelopment of our pain that we become healed, whole again.  It is not the emotions which debilitate us rather our reactions to such emotion, such feeling.  Shutting out the heart, shutting out the truth of our personhood, we are forced to wear a mask not only for others to see but for our own self as we lose the true knowledge of self and set aside the worth of our person; set aside our innate bond with God who only seeks for us to better know Him and accept His love.  All this so we do not become susceptible to hurt...the mere fact that we are mortal makes us susceptible to hurt, susceptible to disappointment and no matter how deep we hind in the confines of the mind, we will never love life without hurt, sorrow or sadness; never.  This is a simple fact of humanity why build walls to attempt to keep out hurt, even the most fortified castles fell to the hands of their enemies.  A wall may stop some arrows of hurt from penetrating but the wall also stops the love from within to heal.  Barricaded we often don't see the world for what it truly is...love.  Sheltered, we react with fear instead of acting in love.  Love fills our, person allowing us to blossom, allowing us to bloom into the beautiful individuals burning within the depths of our being.  It is ironic, we permit love, the heart to speak, when we have not life hiccups, when the path is straight and our view clear for the fog has lifted.  In these times we are filled with excitement, it is like an adrenaline rush from the heart.  God fills us with love and our vision, too, love.  Life becomes less cumbersome and we more productive members of society for love fills our being and we are set free.  It is in our listening to the heart that we come to understand the unconditionalness of God's promise, the lack of judgment from God; thus granting us the freedom to search, to discover the beauty of self.  While we may only partially accept this beauty, we come to feel different.  Overwhelmed comes to mind for many of us never experience the physicality's of love without conditions. Some retreat back to the walls of the mind believing this experience fictitious; others embrace this love for they feel the truth of their heart.  With the love of God comes joy, comes peace, comes safety.  Why, then, do we fear such comforts?  Why retreat to a castle built for one when the warmth of the Son wraps us in the protection of love.  If love brought us to God; if love opened the heart that we may hear the voice of God, then in times of pain don't we need love the most?!  In closing off the heart, we close ourselves off from love.  This is not to say the God stops loving us because He never stop loving us, we just stop accepting this love.  Crawling into the recesses of our mind, we consent to this lack of love, lack of nourishment and we quickly grow weary, unable to discern fiction from reality for our minds adapt the strokes of Salvador Dali and the visions of our world surreal.  Warped images haunt and we draw ever deeper into the mind for reality is what we seek though we are only afforded the terrors of the mind.  The heart is our true reality for long after our final breath, our soul lives on in Christ Jesus.  Our soul is the truth of our reality, for our soul is eternally connected to the Father; our source of reality.  That which we seek, that which has been labeled by humans is our attempt to grasp reality though we fall ever short with each label for we are limited by our mind.  Think of our mind as a vortex of thoughts, logical in nature, attempting self preservation though only creating self isolation.  The heart, however, is just the opposite.  The heart reaches beyond our physical being and connects to that which created, that which protects, that which loves us unconditionally...God.  Surpassing the physical, we learn to embody love, embody the truth of our reality, the truth of God for we are tuned in to His love, in to His very being.  It is in this reality which we discover the strength of the heart, the healing power of the heart.  Enveloped in love, we become empowered to live life with purpose, to fear not the rejects of others; the scowls, the whispers, the chatter from fellow humans because God will never reject us, God will never start rumors or scoff at the tears running down our cheeks.  No, God will simply and lovingly embrace our pain, fill us with peace and carry us when we are weak.  We have no need for protective walls around the heart, the heart is fortified in the power of unconditional love as offered to us by God.  It is our choice whether we accept or reject this love.  It starts with self for we cannot give what we do not have so let us accept this love as our own and fear not the rejection from those who, themselves, have not accepted love.  It is okay to change, for it is through change that we find new opportunities, new experiences.  If we always do what we always did we will always have the same results; but, if we venture new paths under the protection of God, we will have new adventures, the heart will leap, the body soars or the soul rests in the love God through the good and the bad.  A plant without roots will die, it will shrivel up, leaves become brown and brittle and it will cease to grown.  This is our fate should we continue to live among the protective walls of the mind for the mind has no roots, drawing only water from the fabricated notion of physical reality.  Consequentially, the heart draws from the river of life, the source of love, God and thus our roots grow ever deeper, they become connective fibers braided in faith, hope and love.  As our roots grown stronger, our lives become more filled with love, filled with peace and we are able to withstand the winds of misfortune, pain and anxiety for we have learned to lean upon God, our source of love.  Never let the fear of what others think sway the reality of your heart.  Love your heart, live the rawness of your heart, live the God of your soul.  God will always celebrate you, it is now time for you to celebrate you!  Accept your heart, love your heart and be the celebration of life which God intended for you.  You are amazing, tears, smiles, dreams, flaws and all, you are beautiful, celebrate this beauty...step forth from the confines of the mind, allow the heart to strengthen your actions that you confidence may exude from your being, your being of love.  Embrace your raw feelings, give them a voice, the voice of God.  Love is your beauty, let the world see all of your beauty, be proud to be you, be proud to be love; walk in this love and you will never feel lonely again.