TRANSFORMING THURSDAY
Rubber bands in your desk drawer are not fulfilling their purpose unless you take them out, stretch them, and let them do what they were meant to do! I often take out a rubber band and put it around my wrist to remind me to stretch... be flexible... think outside of my comfort zone... Yet, each rubber band has the limit that it cannot be stretched beyond before it snaps.
Notice the rubber bands in the pictures below. Four of the rubber bands are each wrapped around one item. The fifth or middle rubber band has been stretched, tugged, and manipulated to expand around two items. It may not have been easy, but it is certainly doing what it was made to do - hold things together!
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A caterpillar has to do a whole lot of spinning, stretching, and growing to make the transformation and become what it was designed to be...
It takes time and patience for beauty to come out of "ugliness"...
A beautiful, flitting, and flying butterfly is a caterpillar that has been stretched to it's limits and beyond....
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A tiny egg, when fertilized, begins to stretch and grow toward what it was designed to become...
At some point, it has stretched and grown so much that it becomes uncomfortable and to the "breaking out" point. Such is the case with our "transformed mom" friend, Brenda. Brenda is pregnant with twin boys and is scheduled to deliver in 18 more days... on March 8.
.What about love? How does a person stretch and grow to have the transforming kind of love that is for enemies? Surely, if a rubber band, a caterpillar, and an egg can stretch and grow to fulfill their purpose, then what about me? Isn't love my purpose? I have come to the conclusion that it is GRACE and MERCY that help me to understand transforming agape love.
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Many years ago, Steve and I were feeling very judged by some people and things kept going from bad to worse. A wise and Godly man gave us some advice, "Choose to love, no matter what!" I have been on that "choosing to love" journey for over 25 years with the same people. It was giving "my enemies" GRACE UPON GRACE, MERCY UPON MERCY, again and again, that today finds me in a good relationship with them. I had to stretch, look at things from different perspctives, be kind, be patient, stretch some more.... giving GRACE AND MERCY helped me to fulfill my purpose in life... TO LOVE.... I testify to that!
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I am here to tell you that heeding that one bit of advice is why today I can say that I TESTIFY TO LOVE. (It was the rubber bands of GRACE AND MERCY that allowed it to happen).
"Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres. "
1 Corinthians 13
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