Short story: Can love be inherited?
@innertalks (22344)
Australia
February 17, 2025 6:43pm CST
Pastor Fred Gallows was giving a sermon on love.
He said to his captive audience that Sunday morning:
"I was reading where a Rabbi claimed the Bible figure Abraham's love was inherited by the Jewish people."
"This got me to thinking."
"Can the ability to love really be inherited?"
"My short answer would be, no."
"Love is in you, as it is in all people, and love is not inherited, as such, but placed fully in you, and every other soul, by God, to use as they might, by freely choosing to do so."
"We need to choose to love, as otherwise our inclination is to live from our baser animal nature, which is mainly from a survivalist, competitive drive."
"What traits are inherited then, personality?"
"The soul is uniquely only ever itself, yet the body/mind does pass on certain characteristics, and dispositions, from the parents, such as emotive energy type, and mind/ brain power inclinations, too."
"So, things like positivity, in using more our positive emotions might be passed on, but love, not being an emotion, starts and ends with each one of us, in our choice to live from love, or not."
"Love is the seed in us that we can grow, and nurture, within us, and which grows us into higher vessels for God's love, which helps us further to love too."
"It is accepted that physical traits such as eye colour, and body type, are passed on from our parents to us, and so are emotive tendencies too, but never love."
"God has placed his love within each one of us then, and it is our duty to make the most of that love, by living from it as fully as we can, by loving others, ourselves, and God too."
And with that, the good pastor ended his sermon for that day.
Food for thought, indeed!
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
Let God's hand lend you a hand in your life. Love, as God loves.
3 people like this
2 responses
@Shiva49 (26923)
• Singapore
18 Feb
How our parents led their lives influence us to some extent.
A few set an example how not to be like them while others leave a deep positive impression on their children.
A loveless childhood can leave an indelible scar as also when children grow without the loving presence of their parents for one reason or another.
We have an inner knowing that love is the essence of life and the world is short of it.
We all yearn for love but at the same time we do not do our own part in loving others without expecting anything in return.
It is time indeed to turn a leaf so that the world becomes one family without borders driven by selfish pursuits.
2 people like this
@innertalks (22344)
• Australia
18 Feb
Yes, the ways that we are brought up, and how we are treated by our parents can influence us in our own ways of living, and thinking, but at the same time, we remain our own self too, uniquely ourselves, separate, and distinct, from our parents, and so we are responsible for the living of our life, not our parents, as such, as the buck must stop with us, and we must be the one to choose to treat others well, and to choose to love too.
Our inner knowing can be stonkered, and pushed down, by our parents and the world, but we owe it to ourselves to bring it up again to the forefront of who we really are, and to live from love, so that we, ourselves then help to make the overall world a better place for all in it too.
@Shiva49 (26923)
• Singapore
19 Feb
@innertalks When we step up with a loving life, it acts as a breath of fresh air amidst the overpowering darkness.
Like negative news make the headlines, the good deeds may lie low but eventually they will shine through, however long it takes does not matter as long as we keep pegging away.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (22344)
• Australia
19 Feb
@Shiva49 Yes, the light always still shines behind the darkness, and so when we drop our negative screens, the light shines forth again.
At the same time, the light's power might become diminished, if we are not connecting it to the source of that power, to God, but it will never completely go out.
@innertalks (22344)
• Australia
19 Feb
Yes, I agree, we feel love and emotions inside of us, but we must also use them outside of ourselves to live a full life. Bottled up emotions are no good, but exploding emotions are no good either, and so we need a balanced approach to our emotions.
If we have an angry father, we might go in either of two ways; we might be angry like him, or we might strive not to be like him, and to be a peaceful loving person instead.
A lot of things boil done to being our own choice of how we act in our lives.
