Loved People, Love People
By Debbie Prezzano, North Shore Area Director

My Mom gave me a calendar for Christmas.  It’s pink (my favorite color) with a flower petal frame (I know, I’m such a girl) that forms a border around a message.  Each message communicates the depth and beauty of a parent’s love for their child.  Even though I’m a grown woman now and a mom myself, words cannot describe how encouraged I am to read these messages each month.  I know I’m loved by someone who knows me well, faults and all, and it’s this understanding that makes it easy for me to grasp how the author of love Himself feels about me.  He loves me!  And I’m grateful for the purpose that this knowledge brings to my life.

Unfortunately, not everyone has been as blessed as I have to gain this understanding of God’s love.  We’ve often used the phrase “hurt people, hurt people” in our descriptions of the kind of kids and families LIYM has been called to reach out to.  Sometimes the complexity of the mess some of these kids are in is overwhelming.  They seem to need so much more than any of us are able to give.  It’s easy to get caught up in trying to find solutions in programs, institutions and therapy sessions that never seem to work anyway.  What if part of the answer is as simple as trying to change “hurt people, hurt people” to “loved people, love people”?  Not that this is easy of course, but it’s simple and it’s the goal we press toward every day here at LIYM.

Please continue to pray for the staff and volunteer mentors as we work together to love those that many would call unlovely.  Pray that God’s love would flow through us to these kids and their families until they know and understand that they truly are loved people that will in turn love people.

*Names changed