When Israel needed to see a picture of the Lord’s love for them and to see how they were responding to that love, the Lord gave them the prophet Hosea. Hosea loved and married Gomer, a prostitute, and allowed their relationship to be a picture of the Lord’s relationship with Israel. I believe that the Lord still speaks through relational analogies of His love.
The Lord gave me F.L. Stanton. I moved to Atlanta and began teaching at Stanton. 
It was here that I really began to understand the Lord’s unconditional love for me.
My two years teaching in Atlanta were the most difficult years of my life thus far. I was teaching children who had experienced a great deal of hurts. Nearly all of them come from broken homes (In fact, during these two years I had only one student who came from a two parent home!), their neighborhoods are filled with violence and drugs, they have been robbed of their innocence, and they are very insecure. These are wonderful children; many of whom are bright, creative, funny, and have unlimited potential; however, these children do not know that they are loved. They neither know how to give or how to accept love. This inability affects every other aspect of their lives.
I spent two years learning to love children who don’t know 
how to accept or return my love. I would lavish out love upon them. Some days they would bask in that love. They would know that they were loved and would act accordingly. Other days they would hate me and reject my love for them. Their insecurities would cause them to be very defensive and to push others away. And this dynamic played out day after day (or with some students minute by minute). Some of them were harder to love than others. Often times I wanted to quit. Quit teaching. Quit loving. Quit caring. But I couldn’t. My heart broke for these children and the Lord kept drawing me back to them.
He also began to speak to me. “Don’t you see these children? They are so much like you. I lavish My love upon you and you neither understand it nor know how to live in it. But My love for you is different. I do not grow weary in loving you or in loving these children. I love you and them in the way that you long to, but can’t. I love you unconditionally. There is nothing you can
do, no form of rejection that you can throw at Me, that will change my love for you.” The Lord took my flawed love for these children to show His love for me.
My students taught me about the Lord’s love. My relationship with these kids and my own shortcomings in loving them stood in stark contrast to the unconditional love of God. He used these precious children to teach me how to be more like Him, how to live in His grace, and how to love Him more. I am forever grateful!
