It is easy to love people who make it easy. That requires no faith and produces no character.
The difficult ones are difficult in specific, exhausting ways. They take more than they give. They interpret you uncharitably. They are, frequently, family.
Scripture does not offer a loophole for this, but it does offer a reframe: you were not easy to love either, and you were loved first. Not after you improved. Before.
This does not mean tolerating harm. Love and boundaries are compatible, and Jesus withdrew from people regularly. Loving someone difficult does not require unlimited access to you.
But it does mean refusing to write them off. Holding out the possibility that they might change, which is exactly what was held out for you during years you would rather not detail.
Somebody was patient with you while you were insufferable. Pass it on.
