16 Days of Biblical Love #9: Love is not Resentful

It’s a well-established fact in my family that whenever a family photo day comes around, I am guaranteed to be exceedingly grumpy. It’s not because I don’t like family photos, or want to ruin the day or anything like that, it’s just somehow happened that way every time. It’s just a subconscious thing – and I can trace it back to a specific event from my childhood.

I was five, and I was grumpy that day that we were going to have the family photos taken. But on this particular day, Dad managed to cheer me up enough to get me to the place, by saying that there was going to be a clown there. I love clowns! It was going to be great!

…there was no clown there.

We had our photo taken, and I smiled and what have you, but as soon as we were out of that place I took up the issue with my father. He’d said there would be a clown there, and there was no clown! His reply? “Yeah, the clown was there, but you didn’t see him because you were too grumpy”.

What kind of an answer is that?!? Now, granted, that was seventeen years ago, and my memories of that period of my life may have become slightly twisted with age (but I’m still positive that we had that pet cockatoo that Mum and Dad deny!). But even so, it’s put a subconscious hatred for family photo days into my life that has extended until today, and I’m sure that there’s some sort of psycho-babble out there that can prove it.

Today, however, we read that love is not resentful – or, in the NIV, that it “keeps no record of wrongs”.

So today, Dad, if you’re reading this, I forgive you. I will never again be resentful of that non-existant clown that only appears for happy children, and I will be happy for family photo days from now on.

Boy, if that declaration doesn’t show love, then I don’t know what does!

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