On the Subject of Love...

"Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Well, what is love?

This is one of the most talked about topics in the world. It's in songs, poems, movies, plays, book, etc. In the Bible we see there is a whole chapter dedicated to love and explaining what love is in 1 Corinthians 13. It is taught that you can have any spiritual gift and give all your possessions away, but without love, it means nothing. If you look on dictionary.com you will see the dictionary definition of love. As a noun there are fourteen different meanings alone. So where do we go from here? When talking about love, there are so many ways that I can go from here: family, friends, significant others, and everyday people.


I think I'll start with the everyday person. You're walking down the street and you see someone walking in the opposite direction drop there things. You rush to help them pick up the things that they dropped. This may be considered a good deed to some, but it is also a way to show love. 1 Corinthians 13:4 "...love is KIND..." To be kind to a stranger, is only but one way to show love; a love that is defined in the Bible.  Mark 12:31 says that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. You wouldn't hurt yourself intentionally, so why hurt others?



Loving your friends. A friend is someone who is supportive and will help keep you on the path that you need to be...even when you don't want them too. Although you may fight with your friend, you love them. How is this love different from loving the everyday person? Let's take the example from above. Your friend is walking in the opposite direction of you and you see them drop their things. You rush to help them pick up their items and then you walk back to their destination to make sure they won't drop their things again. You have now taken the love for a person you don't know and showed a stronger love. You didn't have to walk that friend to their destination, but because "love is patient", you took some time out of your day to be there for them. Now this is just a simple example and love transcends from helping with groceries, but to see the progression can be helpful.


Family! AAHH!!! What more can be said about them? If you know me, you know I love, Love, LOVE! my family...even when I don't like them, I love my family. Family is my passion, and the way to my heart is my family (and of course my God). The love that I show for my family is the love that I know they give back to me. I would do anything for them. "[Love] keeps no records of wrong" and "it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." I feel that this is pretty much self-explanatory. Protect family, trust family, and forgive and with that love will persevere. I could go on forever talking about family love, but like I said, it's my passion.


The significant other: what you've all been waiting for. So you love your boyfriend/girlfriend, but why? She/He makes you smile. She/He is cute. She/He likes the things you do. You just have this unexplained "connection" between the two of you. Or maybe you lack a true definition of love, and the only connection of love in your relationship is when you "make love". Let's take everything in consideration. Think about the your significant other and make a list of the things you like about them. Is your list looking a bit shallow? If it is, then it looks like some reevaluation is needed in your relationship. What drew you to this person? I hope that you know the person that you pretend to be will catch the eye of someone, but sooner or later they will see the real you. If you are not the person that you put on, and that love that was developed is not on a firm foundation, the relationship will be rocky and prone to fall.


Seeing how relationships with a significant others has so much to sift through, this will have to be continued later. "Love and Relations" on the way...


To end this subject of love I will end with this: 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT) "Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love."