![[GospelWeb.net Globe]](../graphics/GW90logo.gif)
|
|
When I was in high school, my mother used to send me to the store to buy her cigarettes. I didn’t want to do it because I felt it was wrong. I had read this verse several times so I did it, but I went to my Pastor and told him how I was feeling. He told me that I was to submit to my parents unless they told me to do something against what Jesus said in the Bible.
I have received so many emails in the last year from people who said their parents didn’t love them and were cruel to them. My parents were never huggers. They didn’t hug me. They did things that hurt me and broke my heart. However, I am not perfect. I also did things to hurt them and broke their hearts.
I used to blame my parents for everything wrong in my life until I heard Billy Graham say in a sermon “Don’t blame your parents for the way you are now. There comes a time in every person’s life when he or she makes the decision to do right or wrong”. I no longer could use the excuse that my parents made me do it. I had to admit my sins and confess them to Jesus and ask Him to please forgive me.
Someone asked me last week if I have fond memories of my childhood. The answer is no, but they were my parents and I prayed for God to give me a love for them. He was Faithful and before they passed away, I can honestly say I loved them. I remember several times going to my Dad when he was in his office reading the paper. I didn’t say anything because I was scared of him, but I would put my arms around him and give him a hug hoping he would look up from his paper and hug me. He never did hug me, but I have the memories that I tried to show him love.
When I would hug my Mother, she would never hug me back. She always said she was in too much pain. Yet, I would see her hug my brother and it broke my heart. I cried so much because my parents wouldn’t hug me. It made me feel that I was worthless and not good enough to hug. I always tried to keep the house clean and do what she told me in the hopes that one day she would put her arms around me, hug me and tell me she loved me. It never happened, but like my Dad, I showed her my love.
This is very difficult for me to write as I have tears rolling down my cheeks and I can barely see what I am typing. However, because of all the people who have written to me with broken hearts because they felt their parents didn’t or don’t love them, Jesus laid it on my heart to write about parents this morning.
We need to understand that parents are human. They make mistakes and fail us just as we as their children fail them. I was told that my grandfather tried to throw my Dad out of a second story window when he was a child. It is no wonder my Dad couldn’t show love, nobody had ever shown him love.
There are some things that my Mother told me when I was older that I can’t share with you, but after she told me I could understand a little better why she was unable to express love to me. I have a picture hanging in my office with Mom and me. I have my dog in my arms hugging it. I love dogs. Mom has her arm around me. This is the only thing to show me that my Mother loved me in her own way.
I don’t care how old you are, if your parents are still living, call them or go see them today because you may not have them tomorrow. Tell them you love them, and if you don’t love them, like I didn’t love my parents for so many years, ask Jesus to melt your heart and give you a love for them.
My Dad used to curse something terrible. I cringed every time he said something because I knew it was going to be hateful. Yet, when he had his stroke and was in the hospital laying there helpless, my heart broke. That was the day I cried out to God and asked Him to please give me a love for my parents. No matter how much he had hurt me, he was my Dad and my heart broke seeing him helpless.
I would give both arms and legs if it would bring my parents back so I could tell them how much Jesus Loves them. I couldn’t tell them when they were alive because I had never heard that Jesus is Love. All I had ever heard preached when I was a child was that if I wasn’t saved, I was going to hell.
It is time for us to start putting action to our words. Words are meaningless unless we do something to prove we love people. Above all, we need to prove to Jesus that we love Him by the way we treat our loved ones, our friends, and the world.