Love With Our Everything

​Every circumstance around the birth of Andrea was pretty miserable. It was July and the heat was unusually high. There was no air conditioning in our tiny apartment and I can remember the sweat just dripping down my huge stomach. I kept telling everyone that I couldn't wait to go into labor just so I could be in air conditioning. When I was finally wheeled into labor and delivery, I thought the hospital felt extremely warm. Even stifling. The nurses broke the news to me that their air conditioning was broke and it wouldn't be fixed for days. Of course, Andrea didn't know about my circumstances at the time, she just wanted to be born. Soon after our precious baby came into this world, I began hemorrhaging, passed out and was rushed to surgery. Healing was slow and days later, Mike's mom came to stay with us to help out. In the heat. So we sat on the couch, miserable and drenched, passing Andrea back and forth. I was hot and hormonal. But it didn't end there. We were suddenly taken over with fleas from the upstairs apartment and they wouldn't stop chewing on us. (Not a good thing when your mother in law is over for a visit) Our feet and ankles looked like a dot to dot coloring book. Despite all this, baby Andrea didn't have a clue. She didn't know how hot I was or exhausted from loss of blood and sleepless nights. She didn't know fleas were having a feast on my feet and ankles. All she knew was that she needed me and wanted to be loved and when I looked down at her, my heart was over flowing with it. We all have bad days or even weeks, but if we get stuck on our bad circumstances we will miss out on opportunities to love someone in need. Someone that might not have a clue that you don't have air conditioning and you're hot or that you have flea issues 😉 We have a bad day and get irritable and grumpy. Picking the kids up at school, traffic, running to the store or dry cleaners. Our jobs. Everything adds to our irritability. We never notice others around us. The cashier whose heart is broken or the other mom at school who just needs a friend. We miss seeing others who desperately want to be loved. Whose need is far greater than our trivial circumstances. Someone who might have just lost a loved one or whose marriage is falling apart. Someone who needs hope. Someone who needs you. We miss out on opportunities to tell them about the new life they can have in Christ or show them the love that comes from being His child. Having the heart of a mother made it easy to love Andrea with my everything, despite my circumstances, just as having the heart of Christ will make it easy to have over flowing love for others. So despite our circumstances, let's pray that as we look up at the Father, He gives us the heart of His Son. Then let's love with our everything.