Letting go
From a daily inspirational reading on Kurts Daily Muse:
KURT'S DAILY MUSE: "Let Go" Means Love
In our generation, it is very common to have "loved and lost." Psychologists, marriage counselors, ministers, and singles and recovery groups have made fortunes on our misfortunes.So the question is: "What does it mean to "let go" when someone chooses not to love you in return?"
In her book, "Can Christians Love Too Much?" Margaret J. Rinck outlines
16 guidelines for letting go: "To let go:
- does not mean to stop caring, it means that I can't do it for someone else.
- is not to cut myself off, it is the realization that I can't control another.
- is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.
- is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.
- is not to try to change or blame another, it is to make the most of myself.
- is not to care for, but to care about.
- is not to fix, but to be supportive.
- is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
- is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to effect their own destinies.
- is not to be protective, it is to permit another to face reality.
- is not to deny, but to accept.
- is not to nag, scold, or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
- is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes, and cherish myself in it.
- is not to criticize and regulate anybody, but to try to become what I dream I can be.
- is not to regret the past, but to grow and to live for the future.
- is to fear less and to love more."
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." (I Cor. 13:4-8).