Monday, 1st week of Lent devotion - Love and Relationships

You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy... Leviticus 19:2

All our struggles in relationships are connected with what I would call the relationship between the "first love" and the "second love." The first love is from God, who loved us before we could love each other. The second love is from our parents, brothers and sisters, and friends, and it is an expression of the first love. Sometimes we expect from the second love what only the first love can give. That's why we experience anguish. My personal struggle has always been that I expected a first love from someone who could only give a second love.
And as soon as you demand a first love, an unconditional, total, self-giving love, from another human being, limited in ability to give and receive, you will be disappointed. Quite quickly you can even become violent because you expect from a person what that person cannot give. The other person has no choice but to back off, cut loose, and perhaps get angry and feel guilty.

Gracious God, may I remember that the only perfect love comes from you. May I humbly offer my own limited love to those around me.