Rejecting the very thing I need the most.

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“Anything but Castor liver oil.”

 

My grandma thought that a spoonful of Liver Oil per day would keep my bones strong. She saw to it that when we were growing up we never missed our liver oil before we went to bed.

 

Nothing is wrong with castor liver oil before bedtime, except that it made me hate the fishy oily yucky taste in my mouth so that I said to myself, “Anything but Castor liver oil for me.”

 

In all fairness to grandma, I must say that now that I am 75 years old and after three serious motorcycle accidents, three car accidents and having fallen from the top of three trees three times and never broken a single bone, it might have something to do with the good old “Castor liver oil.”

 

Even after seventy I have fallen multiple times and bled but have never broken a bone.

The question is this:  Was the very thing I hate done great things for me?

In the same way the following verse is avoid by many because its narrative is hard to swallow.

“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14

 

You can ask me anything but to love …such and such and their brothers and sisters? No way Jose! I can hardly love myself. But the Word of God says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Every morning, noon and night.)

 

Finally, I am a free man and love others for the glory of God, for the blessing of others and for my own good. It feels good, because I am at peace and glad.

 

A word of advice is that you also should love your neighbor as yourself because the very thing that you avoid can make you strong and can free you in your old age.

 

You will be tempted to do hard and sacrificial things but what our Lord wants from you is just to love in obedience to his word. Jesus said: “The reason why my father loves me is that I obey his commandments.” 

 

You do not need to know and understand God but you are to surrender and obey his commandments. Broken lives are those who do not obey God. The secret of life is contentment in loving your neighbor as yourself. “For how can you say that you love God to whom you have not seen if you do not love your neighbor who you have seen.?

 

Grace and Peace be with you now and forever more.

 

Gerry Gutierrez.

 

Photos are of my Son, Grandson and great Grandson. A family to love.