The Other Kind of Love

When a child spills drink on the floor,

and then slips in their own mess and hurts themselves,

we pick them up, comfort them, clean up their mess,

reinstate them, and give them another drink.

When the same child spills drink on the floor again,

and then slips in the mess they created and hurts themselves again,

we pick them up, comfort them, clean up their mess again,

reinstate them, and give them another drink again.

If the child kept doing this repeatedly, would we continue repeating our comforting and reinstating procedure? Or would we try to get to the bottom of WHY this is happening, and how to prevent it happening again.

When people commit crimes,

and we put them in prison,

and they get out of prison and commit the same crime again,

at which point do we stop the leniency, and try and get to the cause of the problem?

When social workers and carers see the same self-inflicted problems day in day out, caused by the individual themselves:

bad diet,

no exercise,

wrong thinking,

derogatory speech,

sad parenting,

communication misunderstandings,

refusing to change,

living in denial,

selfish attitudes,

high stress,

setting aside no time to relax,

keeping low company,

watching harmful things on TV,

not grieving properly,

out-of-touch with their feelings,

no control of their emotions,

reading damaging material,

spreading gossip,

all self-inflicted,

at which point do they realise, there is no merit in patching up, soothing, comforting, reinstating such a person; we need to get to the root, the cause, the reason they are like this.

This requires the other side of Love - the tough side

The type of Love that won't let people get away with living a lie.

The type of Love that confronts people with their Mirror for their own good.

The type of Love that speaks the truth in grace and gentleness.

The type of Love that lances a boil rather than let it fester.

The type of Love that is firm and unshakable and stands it's ground.

The type of Love that exposes the darkness.

The type of Love that refuses to enter into other people's drama.

The type of Love that doesn't respond to manipulation.

The type of Love that encourages people to grow up rather than remain a child.

The type of Love where the Lover loves themselves FIRST, before they try and Love others.