For the Record ~ Love Anyway

Loving those who at times seem completely unlovable is difficult.  Yet my faith teaches that we are to love one another. I have stressed this before but I feel the need to repeat it. It does not state to only love those who are of same faith, it does not say to only love those who I am in complete agreement with on worldly issues.  It doesn't say only love those of a certain socioeconomic place in life... It doesn't say I don't have to love those who attack my faith. It doesn't say I don't have to love those that accuse me of being a way in which I'm not. No, it doesn't say only love those you wish, or those who are easy to love.  It says, to love one another.

To be clear on where this is coming from.... Last week I stated on Facebook that the fact the President not  calling to congratulate Mr. Netanyahu embarrassed me. I wrote it because it did. It was not stated by me that every other President has done the right thing every time either.

No matter how you read that text, no where does it state or imply that I was attempting to rip our President to shreds.  People made comments to my post,( not all things I agree with )and they too were attacked. Not only did it become a Party issue (which it clearly was not), but it opened the door to comments such as,

"Why do Christians vote to restrict help to the poor and elderly? Why do Christians not want everyone to have health insurance? Why do Christians vote to help the rich? That's saying one thing and doing another, call it what you want."

Bottom line it became a thread of attacking my faith as a Christian and then some....it continued,

"When I say Christian, I mean the folks who want this country to be run by the church. You know this all gets back to gay and women's rights. You want the government out of your life except that you want your religious beliefs to be law. I'm sure whoever you vote for president will be someone against abortion and hates gays AND ready to go to war ASAP."

Finished me off with;

"Let me finish with...I am just doing fine without an imaginary friend."

 I did make it clear that though I don't agree with our President, I still pray for him daily to make wise decisions for our country.  It baffles me to think any one person agrees on every level with whomever our President, I mean seriously?
Not gonna lie, referring to Jesus Christ as my "imaginary friend" was heart breaking and personal to hear. 
To me He is very real. 

Heart breaking, because my faith that is so very personal to me, became hunting season on all Christians. Why do people group people all together rather than an individual personal knowledge of each other? Never would I assume all Muslims were terrorists, or all Germans hated the Jews, all Mormons drink in private, or all skinny women  never eat! That is ignorance.  
Had to throw in the skinny thing just to lighten my spirit...

No where in my original comment did I state my faith or my party affiliation. Yet both became the issue....
 For the record, a registered Democrat that did not vote for Obama and yes I am further right and in more agreement with the republican party because much of it lines up with my faith which is more important to me than any party affiliation. 

That said, I do not believe in abortion, I love the gay community as much as the straight community. Remember, that love one another thing?....that would include those who choose to have an abortion and gays. I don't have to agree with any ones choices in life to love them. Nor does anyone have to agree with me on all things. (hubby this doesn't apply to you ) smile~

The Christian community does much to help the poor and what makes you think Christians don't want affordable health insurance? Really? Truth told, even if I were not a Christian I would help the poor, and want affordable insurance.  Why does my being a Christian get brought up because I said the President embarrassed me. I mean seriously, I don't believe for one minute every Democrat is 100% happy with him. I worked phones on the Nixon campaign and I can say without a doubt he embarrassed me at times as well...
(he was a republican by the way.)

I think of myself of an American Citizen not a Republican or Democrat. I don't feel the need to divide the team into teams.  Fact is, if we all just called ourselves American citizens and there were not parties.....people would still not agree on all counts! What then, would we blame things on if someone had an opinion differing from our own??? Total agreement among folks just doesn't happen in the real world, and guess what? Its okay we don't all agree!

 I wouldn't dream of personally attacking anyone's faith, or ones beliefs, ever!
I would never generalize and put all Christians in to one group, all Germans in one group or one's political party into a generalized group in terms of issues. The party, the race, the gender, the nationality, the religious faith, cannot be generalized as all behaving and having opinions of a like manner on every thought or opinion.  We are first individuals, with minds of our own. Those individuals, are who I 'm to love, the individual.  Nothing else has to qualify them or disqualify them from me loving them.


My hope is that we as a people can agree upon just that, we are individuals and we don't all behave or believe the same way. Choose to love and consider people as individuals who all the want the same basic things, love and respect regardless of how we differ. 

I stated I was embarrassed by our President. That doesn't make me a liar, or a self righteous Christian who wants to attack abortion clinics, or hate anyone based on sexuality, race or cost of health insurance.  Nor does it make me judgmental toward anyone, based on anything . 

Please, if I post something you don't agree with, do not attack my faith or my family. You don't have to agree with anything I say or think.  I'm happy to be connected to people that matter to me and that is why I'm on Facebook. I love to see people from my past, family members and their families and what they are up to. To share in each others ups and downs should we desire to do so.

 I'm specifically proud to be reconnected with many of my high school alum.  It was a great time in my life in a beautiful city and they matter to me. It was never requirement that we all agree on every level in order to be "Facebook friends"....it didn't matter and it never will, to me. Unkind words or attacks toward other friends of mine will be deleted....

Not every thought we have, has to be said....

This and more has been on my heart all weekend, so forgive me for this long post. It's just high time, in my opinion, that we can at minimum be kind to each other as individuals in action and word. To those who differ from me, I love you as much as those that are in agreement with me, and we don't have to like each other!
I do wish Facebooker's would stop with the smarky comments to anyone, it's not a necessary thing in life, it's much to short to spend our energies doing so.

To any who were part of this string of posts....I do care about each of you as individuals, rather you care or not. 
Let's agree since it's so very personal to each, to not attack individual faiths, lets leave that to ISIS.

This and much more echos from my heart today......