Made for More: 30 Days of Experiencing More Life, Love, and FreedomSample

Day 13: Being the Beloved

It should have started the moment you arrived on this planet—being loved. Love is the atmosphere we were meant to breathe, the language we were designed to hear and speak. It’s often why parents have children—not out of obligation, but out of a desire to invite someone into their love, to create a life they can cherish, nurture, and enjoy, a life they can love and a deep hope that life will love them back.

From the beginning, it’s all meant to form a bond—a triangle of love between mother, father, and child. What a design! You and I were literally created in an act of love and meant to grow up in an environment shaped by that same love. This is about affection and attention—it’s about learning how to be loved so that we might one day be able to love in return. All our lives, love is to be central.

One of my earliest memories brings this truth home. I was around four years old, my brother just a year behind me. Every evening, we’d wait in anticipation for the sound of my dad’s old fan-tailed Chevy pulling into the driveway. A couple of playful honks from the horn and we’d burst into excitement. “He’s home! He’s home!” we’d shout. Mom would fan the flame, pulling out a blanket and helping us hide beneath it just in time. When Dad walked through the door, the whole thing played out like a scene from a movie—him calling out our names, searching in all the wrong rooms, until finally we’d leap out from the blanket yelling, “SURPRISE!”

What happened next was sacred: laughter, tickling, rolling on the floor in a tangle of a blanket, my dad’s arms, his 5 o’clock shadow, tangled up in joy. That… was belovedness. My brother and I were seen. We were pursued. We were wanted.

That’s how it’s supposed to be.

But for too many, that kind of love never really arrived—or if it did, it faded, or was hijacked amongst the busyness, or divorce, or even worse. We’ve all experienced trauma and wounding to varying degrees that communicate to our hearts we aren't important, we aren't wanted, we aren't seen and worst of all, we aren't loved. If you missed that early imprint of being delighted in, or if it faded or because it was hijacked, that means you’re not alone. Our Heavenly Father wants to take over the job of being the primacy one to love and care for our hearts. The truth is, He has never stopped loving or caring for you. From our beginning to our end, it’s love that is needed, and turning this core need to the Father is the best way to be loved.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-8,

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

If your earthly father and mother didn’t show you this kind of love, or maybe they did and life circumstances has caused it to fade, you can still experience it. Ask the Father to come, take Him up on His offer, open your heart and say, “Father, I invite you to love me, would you show me, tell me, and give me the eyes to see and ears to hear when and how you do?” It will be worth it; it’s a chance worth taking, a request worth making. Because when you know—deep in your bones—that you are the Beloved, when you know because He has shown you and told you… those are the moments everything begins to change.

As you reflect on all this with God today, consider asking Him:

Jesus, what was the message or messages I heard growing up? Is there any way they aren’t true and are they in the way of me receiving love and having the ability to be loved by you?

Holy Spirit, do I know belovedness, being loved in a way that settles my heart and prevents striving or earning? And would you help me see it as well as help me overcome it by receiving your love today?

Father, is there one phrase or sentence that feels like it’s just for me today? Would You help me hear it clearly and understand why it matters?