"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends...faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
-1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13
It has been something that I have been learning lately. We all think we love but do we really or is it just an emotion we feel and we call it love.
Many people say they love someone, then the next thing you know, they don't talk anymore wether it be a friendship, family or spouse. But that just proves that the love they were talking about wasn't the true meaning of love, it was an emotional love. True love is the verse above, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13.
Francis Chan explains it very well in his book "Crazy Love". He says, "take the phrase Love is patient and substitute your name for the word love." So I did, [Gaby is patient.] Wow, to be honest I laughed when I wrote that because if you know me, you know I'm not the most patient person. It opened my eyes and made me evaluate how I love.
I don't want to have that emotional love, I want to have the true love. The love that is patient, kind and slow to anger. I want to share that love that this verse talks about to the people around me.
- To not keep any records of wrongs, because I love you.
- To be patient and kind, because I love you.
- To not be envy or boast, because I love you.
- To not be arrogant or rude, because I love you.
- To bear all thing, believe all things, hope all things and to endure all things, because I love you.
That no matter what, I will always love because it's not just an emotion I'm just feeling, it's far more then that. Love is something that we invest in and shouldn't be selfish with.
The word of God shows us such a great example of love:
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Next time you get mad at someone you truly love (spouse, family, friend), remember that Christ died for you when you/we didn't deserve it because that's true selfless love. So forgive and love because that is what God has taught us. It goes back to 1 Corinthians showing us that love keeps no record of wrong.
God knew we were gonna make mistakes but yet he still died for our sins. We know that the ones we love are going to make mistakes, so we should still love them.
Take a step back and evaluate how you are loving. God never once said welp, you messed up so my son is not gonna die for your sins. It was the exact opposite, he said "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
"Love is a long term investment that requires daily deposits. Don't treat it as a short term investment, it requires daily deposits because it's long term."
Love doesn't just come and go. It's a selfless everlasting love. We tend to think of love as hearts and kisses but love is far more then that.
This past Sunday at church, my pastor shared with us a love quiz to take to help us evaluate our love.
The Love Quiz:
- Do I get mad while waiting?
- Am I nice?
- Am I happy when others succeed?
- Do I think I'm better than them?
- Am I sarcastic?
- Do I compromise with others?
- Am I easily irritated?
- Do I hold grudges?
- Am I happy even when proven wrong?
- Do I stick with things?
- Do I believe in competency of others? (Or am I the only one that can do it.)
- Am I committed no matter what?
My eyes have been opened to an entirely different type of love, real love.
I apologize if this is all over the place and doesn't make much sense. Kinda word vomited all over my keyboard. Have been kinda out of it lately ha.
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