Good morning, Beloved Ones. We are going to spend this entire week leaning in to our belovedness. We are deeply loved, delighted in, cherished by the One who created and intimately knows us – in all our flaws and all our incredible beauty. Sometimes we have a hard time joining God in that kind of enjoyment, though, don’t we? We don’t trust our belovedness at times, because of so many experiences in life that seem to speak to the contrary. And we don’t always hold the belovedness of others as our primary understanding/experience of them. But when we do? When we can join God in the truth of how deeply loved we are, the ones around us are? It changes everything. So, as we begin this week, pause for a moment and call to mind a moment where you really experienced being “the beloved”. With God, or if that’s difficult to come up with, in a human relationship. Can you recall being delighted in by a parent or a friend? Was there a season in your life with God that your belovedness was your actual experiential reality and deepest identity? Has there ever been a time when you were so at rest with your own belovedness that it wasn’t even a struggle to join in loving that beloved one (you) yourself? When it was the filter through which you saw every human you encountered, including yourself and the ones closest to you? Are you there now? Can you remember it? Take a moment to just sit and be with God in your experience (or lack thereof) of belovedness. Remember what it felt like, or notice your longing for it - or resistance to the whole thing! Whatever is there, sit with it. Lean in. Ask God to remind you this week of your own belovedness, and to help you see the belovedness of others. Let's give God a chance to let us see people how God sees them - so beautiful, and so deeply loved.

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2021-11-15 15:01:11 UTC