Lessons unlearned

We grow up learning lessons about all kinds of things.  Most of our parents and teachers are well-intentioned.   They guide us through those early years the best they can with the information they have.  As pint sized people we are sponges; we soak it all up, absorbing that information (whatever it is) until it becomes a part of us.

I had a thing, taught to me all my life, that I am unlearning thanks to new teachers.

I was taught to believe that love can only be truly shared between a man and a woman and anything else is unnatural.

I was taught to believe that marriage is reserved for a husband and wife and God wouldn’t dwell in a home with any other arrangement.

I don’t believe those things any longer.  I have been blessed to witness a life full of reverence and passion for our Lord and Savior, a reverence and passion that impacts all of her decisions and which guides her daily walk in a way that is obvious to all who meet her.  This friend puts others before herself every single time there is that opportunity and gives more to help children in need than anyone I know.  This same heart, which I believe can only come from God, loves women.  She has had all the struggles you would imagine thinking about what God sees when he looks at her.  She has had all the questions you would imagine about why she feels this way and if she can force it to be different.  She has struggled to conform so she won’t be judged, she has hidden her reality to try not to make others uncomfortable.  Why would my friend, with such a pure and giving heart, choose to be defiant?  Why would she choose a difficult road in her adult life when her young life was plagued with difficulties?   I am convinced she wouldn’t.  I am convinced her love comes from the same genuine place all love comes from and I want her to have it and hold it and cherish it in the same way I am free to do.  What is there besides love that matters at all?  Nothing!

I don’t have all the answers, I am a new sponge, working through these new lessons.  When I pray about this though I keep coming back to the reality of sin in all of our relationships.  When God looks down at my home I am certain he sees that it contains more greed and pride than he would like.   Who am I to say that upsets him any less than things he might see in the home across the street or in the home of a homosexual couple?  What I do know is going through the prayerful process of unlearning those old lessons makes my heart feel convicted and at peace.  Much more at peace than when it was judging and condemning.  Much more at peace because I can celebrate love, in all its beautiful forms, shared by everyone around me.