Quiet Storm

Everyone has a natural, God-given desire to be loved. I don't care how
hard or tough you are, how long you've been alone, how independent or how
self-sufficient you may be, YES! you desire to be loved too. You want
the reassurance of knowing someone has your best interest at heart . . .
you want the security of knowing someone is genuinely concerned about your
well being . . you want the benefit of knowing somebody accepts you for all
that you truly are . . . that is the kind of love I'm talking about.

The problem with acknowledging it is that the older we get, the more
experience we gain in denying or ignoring it. As a matter of fact,
sometimes we even convince OURSELVES into believing we don't need to
have this basic element of life met and fulfilled. But you know the funny
thing? Even if in your head or heart you think you can maintain without it,
after a while you'll find the inner you looking for love . . . a lot of times
in ALL the wrong places. . .

You can best see this human trait uninhibited in the innocence of a
baby. See, we benefit by watching them because babies haven't learned to fake
and pretend when it comes to their inner most concerns. So they'll cry out
for attention, they'll whimper for affection, they'll even throw temper
tantrums! There is a great lesson for all of us in this example. A baby will do
these different things to get the attention of the parent because he/she
knows the parent is the primary source of the love needed. The apostle Paul said
in I Corinthians Ch. 13 that when he was a child, he handled things in a
childish fashion. Have you forgotten that you are still God's child?? The only
difference now is that you should recognize the importance of seeking
your heavenly parent. So why aren't you crying out to God like the baby?

The point is this . . . some of you are looking for love in people
and/or things that will NEVER completely satisfy you. Some of you seek love in
your jobs as a place of refuge from the cares of your personal life,
others of you are on the Internet or in chat rooms actively looking for a new
mate, still others of you are dealing with somebody that is not concerned
about God in the same way you are, some of y'all are afraid to do what God
told you so you're running to something/someone that allows you to forget it
all, and some of you are just out using anything that resembles a warm body
to fill the void from a lack of LOVE!!!

Listen, Satan will never allow you to believe that what you really need
is tied up in God. He'll tell you stuff like "You deserve better" and because that sounds good, we mistake it for "God's will". Many of you on this list will be freed and delivered from this dungeon or misery when you gain understanding about the following:

It's IMPERATIVE that you love YOURSELF before you can love somebody else.

If you aren't crazy about your own imperfections, you'll be miserable
when faced with trying to deal with somebody else's. It'd be easy for me to say "Take it to Jesus" or "Pray about it", and those aren't necessarily bad ideas. But too many times we forget that Jesus is no longer on the cross, so why are you still there?

Fall in love w/ yourself all over again!