We have the responsibility to love and always be growing in our practice of love. And yet on our best day we’re still only human. While seeking every opportunity to grow, there’s much wisdom in remembering our limitations as well.
Of course, we want to do good every chance we get and we feel bad whenever we let those closest to us down. And perhaps many times this is a good guilt when we’ve become so distracted that we’ve neglected important relationships.
But at other times this is a false guilt in that we’re expecting too much of ourselves.
While we want to be there for our loved ones every chance we get, we’re not God and sometimes we’re going to miss ways in which they need to be cared for. And this is not neglect when we’ve simply run into the boundaries of our limitations.
We cannot know everything, be everywhere, and do everything that needs to be done to love each other perfectly.
And so, while we naturally feel bad whenever our loved one is suffering, and we rightly consider if there was anything more we could’ve done, we still surrender to our limitations and trust in God’s infinite grace toward them.
There’s no expectation for us to meet each other’s every need, and we only set ourselves up for much disappointment when we do. God alone is infinite and able to provide for all of our needs.
To be sure, this is not an excuse to grow lazy or otherwise fail to grow in our practice of love. But it is to give ourselves the grace to be human and to not beat ourselves up when we realize we cannot be everything to everybody.
In the end, seek every opportunity to love each other to the full. And remember you’re only human. You cannot provide what only an infinite God can.
Photo by Ryan Holloway on Unsplash
