Happy Valentine's Day?

Wishing You...

The Afterw@rd wishes everyone a lovely Valentine's weekend. We relish and advocate for the day of love to be everyday. We hope that everyone would have a valentine. Even those who are hardest to love.

Love With Imperfection

I always wonder about the depths of unconditional love. It's easy to throw the word "unconditional" around as it relates to an instant, a single specific event in time. For believers, God so loved us unconditionally He so gave His only begotten son. Or in general, talk about the love a parent feels the first time they see their new born child.

However, no one really talks about seasoned, time-sustaining love. This is the love that exists that moves beyond the instant, which evolves over time, despite our imperfections. Can you love your child, your partner, your friend, your co-worker knowing they may be depressed, hyper-active, dysfunctional, or insert your favorite mental disorder here? It's not to say that we support or endorse inappropriate behavior, rather it's an opportunity for us to understand and address the root cause of challenging behaviors, to learn how to love in a deeper more constructive way.

It's a struggle loving through challenge, recognizing that every time we point out, four fingers point in. Do we become better for it? If so, how?

Here I am learning to love with imperfection, trying to find out.

The Afterw@rd