Thursday swap – loving people

lynse said i could write a blurb about myself because i got my post to her super late. sorry, girl. um. so…my name is tam. i write over at inProgress. i live in southern oregon and am married to an amazing man who is a fantabulous daddy and smashing hubs. i have a 15 yr old daughter and 12 yr old son. and a dog. that you can have. like, for free. serious.

moving on…

lynse asked yesterday why is it so hard to simply love Gods Church. His people.

that is a real good question. our church sign reads…

Table Rock Fellowship – Love God. Love People.

pure and simple. i do know that when you love people, you love God. i get that. but do we really love people? or do we pretend? do we say all the right things and act appropriately in the right places at the right time? in other words, can we truly love people if we’re not being authentic?

i think that is why it is so hard to love people. not all people. obviously, there are those that are easy to love…family, best friends. but the reaching out part, the part where we are to go and rub shoulders with the Church. hold on now – that might be uncomfy. but why? i think its because we’re afraid to be ourselves. and that could be for many reasons. maybe we’re people pleasers and are afraid of rejection. maybe we’re worried that if someone knew who we really were they would shun us. bottom line…we’re making life too much about ourselves and not enough about others. i really dont see it any other way. and im speaking to myself here more than anyone else.

so, what to do. get real with ourselves? come face to face with who we really are and lay it before God? perhaps, reconciling yourself with your past, forgiving yourself is in order?

i dont know. im really just throwing things out there. am i totally off? do you have any other thoughts here?