Run Away

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)

Love hurts! Point blank. Because God loves us, He desires our conformity to the life of Christ more than our comfort. Allowing troubles, trials and pain is one way He loves us. I know many people love God based on His acts. We tend to love him as long as He is the genie in the bottle. When it’s time for life lessons we get mad at Him, won’t talk to Him, and have the nerve to even curse at Him. Being a parent, I’ve unfortunately suffered those blows. Just recently I was so overwhelmed with this parenting thing, I did just like one of my kids did when they were a teen – I ran away from home! When I confessed this to my church mother, she said she got a good laugh out of it. Imagine a 50+ year old woman running away from home! Well I didn’t just do it once, I did it several times this year. I didn’t want the responsibilities. I felt taken advantage of and I was over it! Why is it the ones closest to you can bring you the most pain? I asked God how does He have so many kids with so many personalities and quirks and He still manages to Love us all! How are you so dog on long suffering?! I’ve always said that parenting is far more challenging than marriage. Now, both have their triumphs and woes and most days I won’t trade them for anything in the world but as of late I just feel like running away every other day! Honey let me tell you: I left the house at 6am and returned at 6pm. I ate what I wanted to eat. I took a pillow in the car and slept outside of our beautiful Hilton Hotel (imagining I had a room inside). Woke up and went to eat again, read a book, and sat at one of our beautiful local parks. Oh, it was the best day ever! Once I had all the “me” time I needed and nowhere else to go, I decided to take my happy hips back to these people I love! They hurt me, sometimes unintentionally, but they are mine! The ones God matched me up with. So, when someone says that love should not hurt, I’m here to tell you it most certainly does! We can grow and learn from it, though. I just love that God’s word continually screams truth. Recently I had a conversation with my BFF, and I asked her why didn’t people just think simple like me, the world would be so simplistic and a lot less complicated. Her response annoyed me, but it was so true. She said you’re exclusive just like everyone else. God made me a simple thinker and He made some deep thinkers. Neither are wrong and we should offer grace to one another. Yep, it takes a butt load of energy on both sides but at the end of the day we have to show grace to those who are so different from us. It takes a whole lot of patience and energy to endure these differences. I laugh so often when my husband, who has been so patient with me over the years, holds his head in disbelief because we’re just so different. You can’t be more opposite than we are, but we fit. It’s the weirdest most complicated thing that God would join two opposites together. We love each other dearly and we tend to hurt one another’s feelings, but we still make it work. WHY??? Because love covers.

God, help us to give each other the benefit of grace. Help us to choose relationship over offense and hurts. Help us to be quick to forgive others as you are quick to forgive us. In Jesus name, Amen

32 thoughts on “Run Away”

      1. His grace is sufficient! Enough! Praise God. Thank you lady Patrice for that precious word 🙂

  1. This was funny and good. It is all true. I do the same. I get up and I am gone for hours. I am good by the time I get home. God allows me to look at the good times and laugh about it. Then He brings me to myself and Him. Once I am reminded of myself with him, I have my reality check. Plus I would rather be happy than sad and I am greatful that I am not by myself. Amen First Lady.

  2. I know what you mean by wanting to run away from it all. I have my days when I feel the need my run away into solitude. It’s good at these moments that the savior allows us to refresh and graciously come back home to those folks that we wanted to flee from. I loved the part where you asked God to help us give others the benefit of grace. Lord, Lord, if it were not for grace what would/could we do?. Thanks for this good word and posting these messages to us so that we know we are not alone when we have similar feelings. And, most of all, thank you for sharing your heart!

  3. I shared it with a close friend just now. Thanks for the reminder of the sanctity and by God’s design the gift of being who we are and in relationships with people unlike ourselves.

  4. Love DOES cover all!!! The woes in our home, and in our community. The frustration we feel as women, mothers, wives can feel so overwhelming, but Gods got us ❤️
    When my son was particularly out of hand (or just when I was feeling particularly salty) I used to “have to run errands after work” and sit in an empty parking lot and just watch the cars go by. Just having a “psychic rest” for my brain and heart to reset seemed to help me.

  5. So true!! We all have our moments and getting away from it all does helps. The unconditional love for our family!
    Thank You for sharing!

  6. Thank you for being so candid in this post! This is really good and so relatable! Sometimes we feel like we have to be so stoic and not show Emotion because we don’t want to get hurt. But I always have to realize that in life getting hurt, especially by the ones you love most is inevitable. So many times I’ve wanted to just run away but never have the guts to do it! Like you said we have to extend grace to those with differences and even at times to the ones that hurt us the most. When we love hard it hurts more! The pain, trials and tribulations just makes us stronger in the will of God!!

  7. I just finished reading and I have a run away day every morning before my house wakes up before I begin my work day.
    I spend time walking listening to Christian music with every step and then back home to pray to ask God to guide me in my thoughts, sight, words, hearing and my heart because I wear the weight of others on my sleeve. I never leave God out although I may not always know what to say to him or ask him for, I do my best to run to him when I call myself
    running away from the frustrations sadness or feeling like I am being taken advantage of.

  8. This was so spot on!!! I think alot of us feel like this. I have never ran away but I might just now. I love and appreciate you 💛

  9. Love this….gotta keep it in my archives to pull up as a reminder……Sharing with my mom, as well.

  10. I love my me time. This is why unpacking this house is stressing me out. I don’t have any me time. Once it is done, self care here I come. Thanks for a good word.

  11. Sis, this one had me cracking up visualizing you parked out in front of a hotel sleeping in your car on your pillow! But I get it! I’ve “runaway” myself at times to a nearby park just to have time to think. That love thing is strong though. It hurts, it heals, it brings us back. Thankful to God for it!!

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