Love?

I've been thinking about love lately. I have been thinking about what it means to truly love another person. When we "fall" in love, it's exciting. There is the possibility that this person is the ONE we have been praying we would find. I have also been thinking of love in the context of what happens years down the road after we have made that person our ONE.

I've always heard love described as a feeling, but it is truly so much more. When we fall in love with someone, it's in large part because of how that person makes us feel. They make us feel valued. All of us have a desire to know there is someone on this planet that is thinking of us and wants to spend time with us. I believe this feeling is the same whether we are in week three of dating or year thirty of marriage. As women, we want to know there is someone who is willing to stand up for us. We long for a protector and leader.

What happens when these needs are not being met? This is where loneliness, bitterness, and temptation can enter. This is where satan can manipulate what God has joined together. When one person is no longer feeling valued by their partner, it opens the door for a myriad of thoughts and emotions. Love is so much more action than feeling. It's our actions as well as the actions of our mate. Most of us are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 since it is the most popular scripture on love. I want to look at it in The Message translation with my comments in parentheses:

"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up. (meaning it never quits!)

Love cares more for others than for self. (love is not about us, it's about wanting to put someone else's desires before our own)

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. (we are content with what God has given to us. We do not become jealous for the relationship God has given to another)

Love doesn't strut, (love is not about a public display)

Doesn't have a swelled head, (pride has no room in a relationship)

Doesn't force itself on others, (when genuine, love is natural. It is not something we can will to happen)

Isn't always "me first," (we want the other person to feel valued and that their thoughts and feelings are important)

Doesn't fly off the handle, (we do not become uncontrollably angry with those we love)

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, (remember three years ago when you said _____? Yeah, love doesn't do that)

Doesn't revel when others grovel, (if your mate is apologizing, you don't say "I told you so! Love accepts repentance)

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always, (we have to trust God to work in our mate and more importantly, in US!)

Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end."


If you are in a relationship now, I pray for you to contemplate on these verses and what they mean to you. Let's not read them from the perspective of "HE isn't doing these things", but from the perspective of asking ourselves how many we are doing. Do things have to always be our way or do we allow him to be the leader in our home? Are we able to respect his decisions even when we don't agree with them? Do we show him honor for all he does for us? Are our words encouraging or degrading to him? Are we building him up or tearing him down? I pray against any foothold the enemy may have on your relationships/marriages. I pray for love to grow and abound in both you and your mate so your relationship can be a testimony and witness for God!