Our mother’s told it to us, we have said it to our kids… don’t touch the stove! It is hot, you’ll get burned!”

Growing up, it did not take usually but one burn to realize yes indeed the stove is hot, and the pain ensues. We learned quickly. Once, maybe twice, but never again do we put our hand on the stove. Same lesson applied to open flames.

But why, oh why, do the lessons not sink in when it comes to the heart. Flames of the heart cause more enduring pain than a hot burner on the stove. Yet we do not learn.

We try from one relationship to the next hoping it will be better. Yet in retrospect the people who I thought would be the great love have many of the same traits of former greats. Why when we know we will get burned, hurt, scared do we seek out the same traits over and over again?

What lessons are we missing the first, second, third time around with people that prevents us from learning that injury is imminent and we should proceed with caution?

I throw these questions out there not with some new revelation that can prevent future pain, but as rhetorical. Food for thought.

Thinking this morning I just was considering the people in my life and the same traits they all hold when I initially thought they were someone different. Why can’t I learn this, when it only took one time with my hand on a burner to know not to touch a hot stove?

Which lesson was easier for you, the hot stove or a flame of the heart?