Praise God, His Love Never Fails. Sunday, September 18. 2011.

On Saturdays I work at the local skate rink.
I love my job.
I get the joy of hosting the birthday parties.
As much as I love it; it can be an incredibly challenging job.
Dealing with frazzled or controlling parents
and demanding or spoiled children takes its toll.
By Saturday when I get off work at 5pm, I am about ready for bed
but despite all that, the good out weighs the bad.
There still are so many good people who make Saturdays seem like a breeze.
People that are enjoyable to talk with and spend time with.
People who are just outstanding parents who are raising wonderful children.
It is a job that definitely gives me a lot of experience with people and a lot of insight.

This Saturday the first party was supposed to come in at 11am.
The mom of the birthday girl arrived a fashionable 20 minutes late.
What's more than that is she was already drunk. She had already been smoking.
I knew that this was not going to be an easy party.
Anything I said to the mom just went right over her head and it was fairly frustrating.
I could not get across any of the important information to the mom that I needed to.
When the party seated for their table time everything was just so scattered and broken up.
This party was like no party I had ever hosted. There was no flow or peace.
Just one very drunk mom being obnoxiously loud with all her friends, who also happened to be drunk. Finally, they had been at the table so long that I had to move them to a different table to make room for other people.
A few hours after their party time was done they decided that they wanted to have their cake cut.
As I was cutting their cake, the mom and daughter were having a conversation that broke my heart. The birthday girl was whining a little bit because she did not want to leave the skate rink. And what 8 year old would want to leave her party? The mom went on to explain that they had to leave because she had work the next morning....and she needed to get hammered now.
Poor. Little. Girl.
I could not believe what the mom had just said.
The mom was continuing to make her daughter's party miserable so that she could go get even more drunk.
I wanted to badly to say something to the mom.
But I didn't;
because I realized that even though I thought she was being an awful mom, at least in that moment, it is not my place to judge.
I have also learned very well that people love to the greatest extent that they are able.
While I may have considered the "affection" the mom was showing the daughter anything but love, the mom may have felt she was loving her daughter to her best ability.
I pray for that family that they might be able to learn how to love
and I thank God.
I thank God for His love for us.
Because His love is the most perfect love possible.
He love does not run in 20 minutes late or come unable to function or leave for selfish reasons.
His love for us always has been and it always will be.
His love is there for us unconditionally and completely.

I know that we might not all act like the birthday mom
but we all have our failures in our attempt to love.
We are not capable of loving perfectly or wholly.
Thoughts get in the way.
Feelings get in the way.
Our humanness gets in the way.
But greater than that all-
praise God that His love comes to the rescue when our love fails.
praise God that His love never runs short.
and praise God that He loves that little girl. And her mother.
And praise Him that He love us.
Take a look at the cross.