God's Love For Us

"....He chastened them; yea, in the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them because he loveth them." (Helaman 15:3)

I know, and I think that most people know of, God's love for us despite our follies and short-comings. But do we really believe this?  Often, we are the most hard on ourselves I think.  I met a cab driver recently back east.  As we talked, it came up that I am LDS (Mormon).  He began to tell me how he was baptized and was active in the church for awhile, but then his life started to fall apart and he no longer goes to church.  He said, "I know that what the church teaches is true, but I'm disappointed in decisions I've made.  I need to get that worked out before I come back."  He was missing the whole point.  The church is not for the perfect but rather those trying to be better.  "We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19).  Heavenly Father and Christ's love for us is eternal and always forth-coming.

Although I don't always claim to have been exactly on the straight path,  I've always been able to see through dark mists that God indeed loved me despite it all, and therefore that gave me strength to make the necessary changes to come back onto the right path.   His love is always there for the sinner AND for the repentent.  He cannot tolerate the sin, but he loves us in-spite of the sin.  If you feel like God does not love you, simply pray sincerely and ask...you WILL feel it because He does and I've felt and continue to feel it.