When there was a conflict with a family member, my husband Dietrich, when he was on earth, always said: “No matter what, I always love you!”

We remember the song Whitney Houston sang with so much conviction and passion that it gave us goose bumps, because we all want to experience such a thing: “I will always love you.”
 
So, when Dietrich was saying (many times to myself) after the storm passed, “I always love you, no matter what!” it was a balm to the heart, a soothing sentence in the mist of hardships, that gave hope. The impossible dream became possible, when worked at every single day until our sentence became: “I will always be with you! Forever together.”

When Dietrich came back home at night, and I heard the sound of his car engine coming up the driveway, my heart was happily beating for him, because in an instant he would open the front door and hug me. Then our young children would be rejoicing to see him again and holding on to his jacket, to receive attention and love.

Harmony in the family is the basis and cornerstone of the kingdom of heaven on earth. In the family we learn and practice true love.

Whose responsibility it is? Mine? His?
In a conversation this summer my daughter Diesa declared, “It is not my responsibility!”

Thinking deeply about it, we are all responsible to maintain and preserve love and harmony, and to go the extra mile, to nurture each other with love and forgiveness.

I love you no matter what means we can be mean at times but we love each other anyway, no matter what!

We can be rude sometimes, but we love each other anyway, no matter what!

We can fight and want to be right, but it does not stop me from loving you, no matter what.

This is why every time when I heard the sound of his engine driving up the driveway, my heart rejoiced and was beating for him, because I could experience true love.

True love? How does it work in practice?

This summer 2022, which I spent in France, I had many opportunities to practice Jesus’ sentence “Love your enemies.” Some days everybody was my enemy, my heart was shrinking. I could not love anymore.

I tried to get hope by reading my horoscope. It said: “Avoid all conflicts. Avoid all confrontations.”
It seemed strange planets were crossing my sky.

This sentence kept coming to my mind: No matter what, I love you! No matter what, I will always love you.

As we grow and become spiritually mature, we get tired of fighting and learn to control our emotions, control our behavior. We respond and do not react. We become serene and calm surrounds us. We digest the difficult feelings. Suddenly, we are no longer rude, or impatient, unforgiving or disturbed, but we apply “I love you, no matter what.” Suddenly we are a step closer to our Heavenly Parent, closer to how we should be, closer to Jesus and to each other. And suddenly we feel happy because we could create a true love moment.

True love needs to become a lifestyle. This is how we change the world
As we build relationships of heart with our family, we need to build relationships of heart with our tribe, our people and our nation. This is indeed no simple task. I love you all, anyway.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel