Lesson: Loving people where they are is related to being thankful about where you are. Both require the same level of intention. However, loving people where they are is a lot more difficult for most of us.

We all have opinions about where we think people should be in life and what we think people should be doing with their life but should that really be our concern? Of course when you really love someone you want the best for them and you want them to live their best life, but this is something that we can’t control for others. We can try to be a positive example for others and help them when we can but at the end of the day, we are each given one life and we each have to decide for ourselves how we are going to live that life.

Instead of trying to change the people in your life that frustrate you, instead of constantly reminding them of what they are doing wrong, instead of trying to push them in the direction you think is best, just love them period. We have to practice releasing people to be who they are going to be. You don’t have to agree with their life choices or direction but you can love them where they are despite what they are doing or not doing.

Loving people with terms and conditions attached is not love. We don’t really love people if we only accept them when they are doing what we want them to do, or making choices that we approve of. Too often we get so focused on all of the “wrong” things about a person or on what they are doing that frustrates us that we miss all of the “right” things about a person and what they are doing. As I alluded to last week, people are the way they are for a reason. You never know what someone has been through. So learn to love people where they are, on the way to where they are going.

One of our greatest responsibilities is to love people as we love ourselves! To treat people as we want to be treated. Take a minute and think about that. How do you want to be loved? Is that how you love others?

Action Step(s): Make a list of the people in your life that you find difficult to love. Then think of two lovable things about those people that you can focus on the next time they start to irritate or frustrate you.