LOVE THEM ANYWAY

I was reading my daily devotional this morning, and one of my notes struck a chord in me.

Forgiveness is choosing to love when your heart wants to stay angry.

Some days it’s easier to love strangers online than the people sitting next to me in real life. Because your neighbor can be the one who hurt you. But over time, it becomes a testimony. Your life becomes the evidence.

There was a season in my life where forgiveness felt impossible. Maybe you know the kind—the kind of pain that settles in your heart so deeply that it feels like it owns a piece of you. Someone had hurt me, badly. And for a long time, I believed the lie that holding on to that grudge somehow protected me, that refusing to forgive was the only way to guard my heart from ever being wounded like that again.

But the truth is, the longer I carried that weight, the heavier it got. It clouded my joy. It hardened my heart.

Yesterday, I made it public about my husband and I were finally getting the opportunity to start our IVF journey. And all it took was one comment to almost completely unravel how far I’ve come in my mental health progress and truthfully, made me want to close my Bible.

But I didn’t. Because why would I do that? Why would backtrack after everything I’ve healed from, after everything I’ve laid at God’s feet? Why would I pick that back up?

I wanted to tell you, as my readers, how one major hurt has negatively affected my life over the past year, but I’m not going to do that. Because that would completely negate everything my blog is about, right?

Instead, I want to tell you how Jesus washed His disciples' feet in John 13. He wasn’t just setting an example of humility, He was showing radical, unconditional love. Even knowing Judas would betray Him, Jesus still knelt down and served him. Loved him.

That kind of love doesn’t make sense to the world. It certainly didn’t make sense to the part of me that wanted to cling to my hurt.

But Jesus calls us to something higher.
Not to love when it’s easy.
Not to forgive only when someone apologizes.
Not to show kindness only when it’s deserved.
He calls us to love as He loved—freely, sacrificially, without expecting anything in return.

John 15 reminds us that staying connected to Jesus—the True Vine—is what gives us the ability to bear fruit. And what is that fruit? Love. Forgiveness. Grace. Compassion. Even for the people who have wounded us the most.

Romans 13 echoes this same call: Love is the fulfillment of the law. It’s not an optional add-on to our faith—it’s the very heartbeat of it.

And Leviticus 19, even way back in the Old Testament, speaks so clearly: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge...but love your neighbor as yourself.”

And that’s the verse that got me this morning.

Forgiveness isn’t about forgetting what happened. It’s not pretending it didn’t hurt. It’s about trusting God to be the one who heals, restores, and makes justice right.

It’s about refusing to let bitterness define your story.

Choosing to forgive was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it was also the beginning of true mental freedom. It’s where I learned to love anyway.
Even when it wasn’t reflected.
Even when it wasn’t deserved.
Even when my heart still ached.

Because at the end of the day, love isn’t a transaction—it’s a testimony.
A testimony that Jesus really does change hearts.
A testimony that grace is greater than hurt.
A testimony that light is stronger than darkness.

Lord, You know the wounds I carry. You know how hard it is to let go of the hurt. But You have called me to something greater—to love like You love. Help me to release the grudges I’ve been carrying. Help me to forgive even when I don’t feel like it. Help me to trust that You are the one who fights for me and heals me. I want to love anyway, Lord. I want my life to reflect Your love. Teach me how. Amen.