I've attached one of my blog posts. You can read more at jelieff.wordpress.com. Thanks!
I am a mother. I know what you're thinking. How irresponsible of me to have a child so young, right? My daughter loves Fazoli's spaghetti. My daughter loves to ride in the back of Caleb's truck after swimming in the muddiest creek she could possibly find. My daughter is the cutest Chocolate Lab you will ever lay eyes on. My daughter's name is Jessie.
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Jessie is the bomb.com. The bee's knees. She is also a compulsive trouble maker. Whenever Caleb or I come home, it is always obvious if Jess has done something wrong. She tucks that tail and walks slowly into any area of the house that we are not in. She gives herself away! I mean, shoot, she could've blamed it on the other dog. Or on the mouse that sneaks in through the laundry room. But, no. Jessie wears her shame like a new pair of shoes. Although, unlike a new pair of shoes, shame is not a fitting look for Jessie.
After returning to the house recently, I opened the door to find Jessie darting the complete opposite way from me with her little brown tail tucked all the way to her snout. Instinctively, I began looking for whatever it was she had done. And, low and behold, there stood a big pile of chewed up trash out of the garbage bin. Hamburger Helper leftovers, rotten banana peels, and snotty tissues... Oh my goodness, Jess.
Seeing how Jessie reacts to her mistakes got me to thinking.. I am just like my dog. Whenever I do something wrong, I tuck my tail, run the other direction, and sweep it all under the rug, hoping no one ever notices that I made a mistake. What's amazing (and somewhat terrifying) is that Jesus is the one hiding under that rug with the dust pan.
Jesus Christ is the person that comes home, sees us with our tails tucked, and sees our mistakes clear as day (even though we made quite the effort to hide them). He is the person that can't help but smile a slight grin as he cleans up our chewed up pile of trash, because He loves us more than He dislikes our mistakes.
So, I think something I (and probably all of us) could learn from Jessie is this: we make mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable. We are sinners in a corrupt world full of temptations. But, just as I love Jessie even when it's not easy to love her, Jesus Christ loves us. He loves us when we mess up. He loves us when we lie. He loves us when we cheat. He loves us at all times.
Now, that does not mean He loves the actions we are committing. I mean, shoot, I would prefer Jessie didn't dig in week old trash, but this does not mean that I love her any less.
Jesus wants us to come to him to air out our dirty laundry. He wants us to come to him to confess our mistakes. He wants us to sweep all of the dirty things of our lives in to His dust pan. He wants to offer us unfailing love and forgiveness. And not only this, He wants to provide us the strength to love and forgive ourselves.
"If God loves and forgives you for your mistakes, then why can't you love and forgive yourself?"