By Daniel Garner
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance" - 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
"Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love" - Mother Teresa
Ah, love.
Or amor. Or liebe. Or amo. Or ast. Or the oratory feat that is kjaerlighet (thank you for that, Norway).
We have as many definitions for it as we do languages. So with all of those, does ours match Gods?
Turn on the radio and you hear a love song. Get passed by a bus and we see a sign for a dating website. Turn on the T.V. to Lifetime and we learn why it's always best to say "no" to that 32nd Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.
We are inundated with other people's perceptions of what love is. One of the things that I heard lately is that being in love means never having to say "sorry". While I thought that it sounded lovely and would fit wonderfully on a T-Shirt in reality I'm not sure how much water it holds.
Love does not mean never having to say "sorry". Love means failing and falling and someone being there to pick you up and if need be, to carry you. It's jumping a chasm knowing that someone will be there to catch you. It's screaming and shouting because love is a part of life and life is wrought with confusion. Love does not mean never having to say "sorry". It means learning how.
Love is devotion. Love is self-sacrifice. We don't always want it to be, but it is. When you think of "love" do you think of what it really is or to someone or something that ruined it for you?
If so, you're not alone. We are all flawed so those flaws extend naturally to every part of our life.
Including our love life. But just because something is flawed it doesn't mean it cannot be beautiful. Millions upon millions of roses are handed out every Valentine's Day but even they needed roots to grow and bloom only a few times a year.
Love is not simply about finding someone to save, or change or "fix". It's not about finding someone who has 40% of the qualities you want and that you can work with the rest. It's about finding the person who is already the right fit. However, sometimes people lose their way and your fit with them can help them regain their path.
And, by the way, that works both ways.
The point is that love is a variable. You see something in someone that makes them special, but sometimes that specialness can be obscured. True love? That's uncovering it!
The Takeaway: No matter what the world's definition of love may be, we can know that God's definition of it is as steadfast as His love for us!