What keeps us from showing up in love?

We want the other person to apologize. We want them to make the first move. We want to be right.

When we hold onto “whatever it is,” who are we really hurting? We think we are punishing the other person or holding the other person “accountable” but really, we are hurting ourselves with the not good feelings.

The only person we can hold accountable is ourselves.

And. We are not going to change someone by withholding love.

We often think that the other people in our lives need to change in order for us to love them unconditionally.

We need to drop our expectations of others and just love them!

We cannot control other people. They may never live up to our expectations or change, so we must choose to love anyway, accept them as they are. If we let go of our expectations it opens us up to enjoy people as they are and what they do. Everything opens up when we drop our expectations of others and focus on the only thing we can change, which is us!

We can only control how we show up, how we think, how we act!

Consider: What would love do? How would love show up? How does love show up here? How does love respond here? How does love act? How does love think in this situation?

Love is supportive, encouraging, thoughtful. Love thinks good things about the other person. Love is patient, gentle, consistently kind to all. Love is not jealous, does not brag, nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame or disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated, or quick to take offense. Love is safe, and never stops believing in others, and never gives up. (a version of 1 Corinthians 13)