Day 13 - Unconditional

I had an interesting experience last night that taught me much about love. I wish I could say it was because I somehow increased my ability to love, but rather it was something I learned because of my limited capacity for love. This was made more clear to me through the example of love in others. Several months ago I was working with a family and helping them through some hard times. They often called on my for help. Through the experience I left with a feeling that they were not grateful for the help they received, and I felt somewhat taken advantage of. Last night, my wife and I were trying to do a little simple service by taking cookies to people in our neighborhood. She suggested we take some cookies to this home I had worked with months previous. Because of my experience with them, my heart was hardened to showing further love. We went to a different house instead to give cookies. Not 5 minutes after returning home someone came to our house saying a member of this family needed some help. I was humbled in my pride and went with this person to go help. My wife, the loving woman she is, gave me some more cookies so I could take them over. The experience of helping this family filled my heart with the love that I had been pushing out earlier. I realized I was blocking my ability to love because of my limited judgements.

Lets all be aware of the limits we often place on our love. Are those limits placed there by ourselves in order to preserve our pride? If so, we are only prohibiting our ability to love more.