{"id":1128,"date":"2011-07-14T07:05:34","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T11:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2011-07-14T07:12:26","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T11:12:26","slug":"walking-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/07\/walking-in-love.html","title":{"rendered":"Walking in love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This week there are three little girls under the age of five visiting in my home.\u00a0 Watching them, I’m\u00a0amazed again at how much they are able to pour their love out without abandonment.\u00a0 The girls live in another state; but they have visited my home\u00a0enough that they have become friends with other children and several adults in my city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not being their parent, primary caregiver, teacher\u00a0or even a grandparent, I am freer to observe them and learn from their actions and reactions.\u00a0 Here are a few things that have struck me over the course of this week.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 They don’t instinctively trust everyone.\u00a0 Of course, this is a good thing because not everyone is trustworthy.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Building their trust can take minutes, days or weeks.\u00a0\u00a0The children take their ques from the people they trust already.\u00a0\u00a0How quickly they give their love to\u00a0 you\u00a0depends on how much they sense their parents trust you.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Each person is evaluated differently and shown love differently.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Each child shows her love in unique ways.\u00a0 Their own personality shapes how much she expresses\u00a0her love.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Once trust is built, love is given completely and without abandon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Love can heal almost any wound.\u00a0 Love is the most powerful tool we have as Christians in winning the world to Jesus.\u00a0 Often, we meet people how are hurt and torn.\u00a0 Too frequently, their hearts have been ripped in a way that seems beyond repair.\u00a0 I wonder,\u00a0do others see love without abandon in me?\u00a0 Are they able to search my live and find\u00a0 that\u00a0thing for\u00a0which they yearn?\u00a0 Love.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My gut reaction is that I must show perfection when persenting myself to other people.\u00a0 Yet, people\u00a0aren’t looking for\u00a0Mr. Perfect Person.\u00a0\u00a0We are all looking for someone to love and who genuinely loves them.<\/p>\n

Seeing the three girls cousins walking hand in hand, laughing, smiling and loving, pulls my heart to the beauty of why Christ died.\u00a0 Yes, he came to forgive our sins.\u00a0 But\u00a0mostly he came to show all people that God loves us–wihtout abandonment.\u00a0 He loves us enough to die\u00a0to win our love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week there are three little girls under the age of five visiting in my home.\u00a0 Watching them, I’m\u00a0amazed again at how much they are able to pour their love out without abandonment.\u00a0 The girls live in another state; but they have visited my home\u00a0enough that they have become friends with other children and several…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,40,186,49,16,215,8,85,12,4,41],"tags":[688,696,7,699,715,701,719,689,6,700],"class_list":["post-1128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","category-love","category-mentally-challenged-community","category-prayer-2","category-religion","category-simple-truths","category-spirituality","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-love","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nWalking in love - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/07\/walking-in-love.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Walking in love - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week there are three little girls under the age of five visiting in my home.\u00a0 Watching them, I’m\u00a0amazed again at how much they are able to pour their love out without abandonment.\u00a0 The girls live in another state; but they have visited my home\u00a0enough that they have become friends with other children and several…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/07\/walking-in-love.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-14T11:05:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-14T11:12:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/07\/Camp-agape-2011-028-resized.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. 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