Believing in Love

I believe in His Love. When I was younger, I was incredulous at the idea of a God accepting me for who I was. The thought of other people at church staring at me with their disparaging glances, their faces contorted in order to see something within me that even parents had no knowledge of, scared me into ignorance. 

When I finally came to terms with my identity, I decided to do what my mom and dad had instilled in me from the time I could talk; tell the truth. That heavy, black cloud of doom seemed to dissolve as those two words slipped from my mouth. 

But then that cloud dug its grasp even tighter into my skin. The truth is not as agreeable to some as I once thought it was as a child. I lost almost all my friends, including the group of girls in which I had been close to since 6th grade. I sat alone at lunch for the first time in all of my ten years of school, thinking of the mistake I had made in confiding to those I thought I could trust. I had never felt farther from God. 

Then, one night, as the moonlight creeped into my bedroom, I did something I hadn’t done since I was a child. I dropped to my knees, and I asked for His help. As I sat on my bedroom floor at 3:30 in the morning, tears blinding my eyes in the dark, an epiphany fell over me. Things were going to get better.

I believe in the unconditional love of my family. Through loving them, I learned to love myself. I owe them my entire well-being, as well as my joy. The relationship I have with my mother, father, brother, and grandparents is something intangible, and that is what has truly connected me with Christ. 

In the end, there are a handful of values I can proudly proclaim: I believe that love has no bounds. It does not discriminate, and it does not choose. Love is what keeps up afloat, even when the world feels as though it’s sinking beneath our feet. His love opens a door to acceptance; and eventually, a life worth living. 

​~Taylor Trapp- Online Editor-in-Chief