How beautiful is life when you love. That is enough, just to love, to radiate it, to let love go, soar, encompass the Universe. And yet, when you give love, it has already come back to you. It is done. The love you give will inevitably come back to you, and, yes, a thousandfold. You may protest that is not the case for you, but wait, beloveds, wait. All the love you have given is winding its way back to you, and it will reach you.
Anticipation for a return for your love given is not a reason to give love. Give love innocently. Give it for the joy of itself. It is ultimately for your own heart that you give. Give only according to your joy. Giving from sense of duty is wrapping ties around another. Love is not meant to be sacrifice by any measure. Sacrifice diminishes the one you sacrifice for, and it diminishes you. You may think it raises you to a high level, but sacrifice – a sense of sacrifice -- is not sacred. It is not holy.
To love is a privilege. It is natural, and still it is a privilege. That which you call sacrifice is not love. Ego would tell you that sacrifice is love, but ego doesn’t know what it is talking about. Ego doesn’t have to know, nor does ego care what it tells you. But you care, beloved, and I care. We care with all Our heart. From Our heart comes caring about the well-being of another. Their well-being is the same as Our own. This is not a sacrifice.
The mother who cares for her baby would not have it any other way. She knows she is privileged to have this baby, privileged to be the baby’s mother. She may not love having to get up in the middle of the night, yet she would love to give succor to her baby more. It is automatic to respond to the baby that needs your care. The baby already loves his mother. The baby, fresh from Heaven, came into the world with great love. Caring for your baby brings you back to Heaven. It stirs the Heaven in you.
To receive love is a great gift, but nor are you to receive love as a sacrifice any more than you are to give it as a sacrifice. When there is sacrifice, there is obligation. Neither you nor another is obliged. Obligation does not come from the same place that love does. Fulfilling a sense of obligation may feel virtuous. I have noticed, however, that obligation does not usually work out well. Obligation holds you and another on a leash.
Now, love may be commitment, but commitment is not obligation. Commitment is commitment. When you are committed to something, it is your choice, and you do it graciously. To do it unwillingly is an offense. To do it from the commitment of willingness is another story. What you do is what you do. How you look at it makes all the difference in the world.
Never be begrudging. Do not drag your feet. Be happy to give where it is yours to give. Be happy to give what is within you to give. Give from fullness of heart. Anything less is taking, not giving. When you give from obligation, you take away the other’s sense of freedom, and you are indebting them to you. Do you feel the difference in your heart? Do from love. Doing from love is the same as following My Will, beloveds.