Hard Love

I’m participating in my first “5 Minute Friday.” Here’s what it’s all about: The Gypsy Mama gives a writing prompt and others join in, writing about that topic for 5 minutes with no editing or tweaking. “Let’s just write and not worry if it’s just right or not,” she says.

The Hard Love …

I noticed a touch of pink in my backyard this morning. The first blooms of our bleeding heart plant. (I thought about getting a picture, but it rained most of the day, so the photo above is from last year.)

It seems fitting to see a bleeding heart today, Good Friday. The day that hard love was born. The day that love did what it didn’t have to do, all for the sake of relationship.

I can learn a lot from hard love. I need to “do” hard love more often. I need to give when I don’t feel like giving. I need to bite my tongue when I’m about to say something that doesn’t need to be said. I need to lay down my rights in an effort to put someone else first.

It seems so un-American, but it is exactly what God did. Christ gave up His life for the sake of relationship. For the sake of you. For the sake of me.