Before the movie “Finding Nemo”, came out Steve
Jobs the founder of the Apple Computer company
spent millions of dollars promoting it. Before a
major push on merchandise Nike will sign a multi-
million dollar contract with some sports star.
Sometime soon you will see a major player in the
clothing industry hire a celebrity to promote
their product before the holiday rush. These
companies think they have it figured out. How do
they attract you to the product or service they
are selling? The packaging!!
Millions of dollars are spent on researching and
packaging many products and services even before
they hit the shelves. If they can entice you
enough, then they have a better chance to hook you
into owning it. Many of us get the product home
and when we open it up and it doesn’t match the
expectations the outside of the box conveyed to
us. Then in a short period of time we lose our
interest become disappointed and put it on a shelf
only to go try and find another to fore fill our
desires.
Let’s say you have a child and they disobey you.
Do you put them on a shelf and go have another or
borrow one from the neighbor. No. You still value
them, accept them and love them. You accept them
in spite of their behavior and actions at the
time. But why don’t we take that same type of
thinking with adults we know? It doesn’t matter;
friends, dating or married many times we love the
other person because of what they originally
brought to the relationship (the packaging, the
hype). However, once we get to know that person
we realize that they have some things that don’t
line up with our expectations of them or remind us
of a past relationship that went sour. They don’t
fit in our packaged box anymore. We even try to
mold them to fit, and when they don’t we put them
on an emotional shelf with an expiration date. In
the beginning we loved to be around the other
person more and were attracted to them because of
who there were not in spite of who they are.
Jesus Christ is a great example to follow. Did
Jesus die for us and loves us because of who we
are? No! He died for us and continues to love us
in spite of who we are. Even though we may disobey
him or put him second best he still loves us. Even
though at times we do not live up to his
expectations, he realizes each one of us has
things in our lives we could be better at. He
knows we may continue to sin (Romans: 3:23) but
he’s not going to put us up on a shelf and find
another one to love. He will continue to nuture,
love and lead us closer to him. He sticks with us
no matter what that is true love.
Let’s all love our friends and close companions
not because of what they bring to the table of
life or what they can do for us, but love them in
spite of their areas that don’t line up with our
expectations. Don’t take a chance and lose a close
friend, or even mate because they didn’t fit into
your expectation box. Accept them, value them, and
Love them in spite of it all, you may just find a
diamond in the ruff.
Jesus did!
Greg Ryan is a best selling author of the Changing from the INSIDE OUT series. A powerful five step plan to better your life, get healthier, and have more energy! For FREE mini Course click here!
