LOVE IS......

We have been so busy with our lives.  Jacob is going on two months old, I celebrated another birthday, and the big kiddos have started back to school full time.  Yes, our lives are full and busy, but we don’t mid.  Why?  Well mainly because our lives are full of love.

As I have been thinking about what we love, how we love, and why we love certain things; I have been pondering the idea of what LOVE really is.  Most people associate the word love with a feeling.  Personally, I think that we use the word too flippantly in our lives.  If we enjoy a good meal, be it a steak or a hot dog, oftentimes we say “I LOVE that!”  If we see something that catches our eye, a new car, a new toy, or in my case new bags or jewelry; we will say “I LOVE that!”  Yet, the reality is that love is more than a feeling or a flippant expression. 

Love is an action, a series of items that when combined give us a beautiful picture of love.  The best definition of LOVE that I have found is in 1 Corinthians.  Most people know this definition of love.  It is used often at weddings as the ideal that the couple getting married has achieved this level of love.  Most people read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 as the LOVE chapter.  They read the verses and smile.  I read the verses and feel convicted. Here’s why!

The LOVE chapter in verses four through seven states:

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Right away I can see that I am NOT loving nor am I full of real love.  At any given moment I lose my patience.  At any given moment I can be unkind.  Some days I brag about my accomplishments.  Most days I am easily angered when things don’t go my way.  I harbor hurts or what I feel are injustices against my person and do not want to forgive but want to stew and remember them for many days, months, and even years to come.  I don’t always want to hear the truth let alone rejoice in it, especially if the truth goes against what I think and feel.  I don’t always protect, I don’t always trust, and I lose hope and give up the fight too often.  Based on this definition of love, I am the most unloving person of all.

BUT, I don’t want to be unloving.  I want to be all of the virtues of love in action.  I want to be patient and kind.  I want to persevere and have hope.  I want to not brag on myself but esteem others.  I want to be LOVE, but I know that left to my own devices and that if I rely on my own strengths I will showcase my greatest weakness, an inability to love.  I need an example of how to DO all the things that are needed to show love.  Thankfully, I have that example in the personhood of Jesus Christ.

When I am purposing to love, I only have to look at Christ.  His very words and actions showed what real love is.  His very life was lived fully and completely demonstrating and practicing the idea that love is a verb.  Knowing this, when I set my sites on Him and mimicking His life, I can LOVE perfectly.  Sadly, I don’t choose to do this often.

As I sit here, listening to my children laugh, watching a baby smile and coo, and thinking of what I need to get up and take care of in my home I realize I have a choice.  I can choose to live the example given to me by Christ in His perfect examples of love, or I can do things my way and continue to be unloving.  Today, I choose LOVE.  Will I fail?  Most definitely, but I will continue to strive to LOVE the right way.