First I have to say, I should be embarrassed to admit this but it’s true: I watched the first episode of the reality show, “She’s Got the Look.” It’s about women over 35 being in a competition for becoming a model. I confess, I wondered how I would do on that show.
But now that I’ve confessed, here’s my point. One of the women was very upset because she missed her sons so much. She was in tears and wondered if she should be there. In the end, the judges offered her a chance to go home and she took it. But what struck me was something she said. The first: “My kids can’t get along without me.” I’m not sure how old they are but even over the phone they assured her they were doing fine. They may have even been teenagers.
Then she told the other women, “When each of my sons was three years old, I had them sign a pack that they would never love anyone else more than me their whole lives.”
When one of the other women said, “Even their wife?”
She replied, “He can love his wife but not more than me.”
WHAT????? Oh my! I was stunned. First of all that she would admit this but by admitting it, without a blush, she was acknowledging that she didn’t see anything wrong or dysfunctional about it. She still thought this was appropriate.
Oh my! If I had a granddaughter, I’d make sure she didn’t marry that woman’s sons. Major problems with the mother-in-law!
I’m sure I have some deep-seated strategies that are just as dysfunctional so I’m going to be alert for them. But I do hope none of us has this particular one.
I had already posted this and didn’t think I could find a spiritual application, but I think I did: Jesus has asked us to sign a pack that we will never love anyone more than Him our whole lives. That’s what we did when we “signed up” to become a Christian.
That mother on the show had no right to require her sons to never love anyone more than her, but Jesus has every right to require us to love Him the most: He gave Himself as the ultimate sacrifice in the most degrading way for our salvation when we don’t deserve one iota of His love. It was pure grace.
If you and I signed that “pact” to become a Christian, then we have agreed that we will not love anyone or anything else more than Him. Wow, that’s a tall order. I can’t do it; I can only cast myself before God pleading for His mercy to empower me to fulfill His requirement.