From The Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion: His to Love

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His to Love

Take God for your spouse and friend and walk with Him continually, and you will not sin, will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you. --Saint Teresa of Avila

One of the greatest blessings I have in my husband’s love for me is how all-encompassing that love is. Sometimes I tend to see and judge myself as a conglomerate of functions: the Christian Rhonda, the mothering Rhonda, the working Rhonda, the sinning Rhonda, etc. Instead of seeing me as the sum of my talents and faults, my husband instead takes me as an integral whole. He loves me because, as he says, “God gave you to me.”

I am loved simply because I am and because I am his to love.

[Tweet "I am loved simply because I am, because I am his to love. By @rhondaortiz_"]

Realizations like this help me appreciate the graces that flow through the sacrament of Matrimony. On a far greater scale than any human love, Our Lord also loves me because I am and am his to love.

Often my pride, scrupulosity, and criticalness stem from a tendency to judge myself by my accomplishments or failures rather than my innate dignity as a human person. But God loves me with a devotion whose “flames are a blazing fire,” to borrow a phrase from the Song of Songs, and that love is not contingent on how good or accomplished I am. I cannot earn his love. He loves because he is love, the source of love itself.

Thank you, Lord, for accepting and loving me as I am today. Help me to grow in the knowledge of your love so that I might in turn grow more in love with you.

To Ponder: Have you lately been critical of yourself or others? If so, what concrete acts can you take to restore your faith in God’s unconditional love for yourself and others? Take a moment to write down your resolutions.