Love is any interesting topic in my life at the moment. I feel like it's something God has really been teaching me about these past few months. One thing I learned is that the meaning of “love one another” means to “behave well towards another”. It is not an emotional or physical feeling, but a choice made to treat other people with dignity and respect, even if they have no intentions of doing the same. This is a difficult concept to embrace since, from my perspective, we always want good behavior reciprocated. Most are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:4, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud". "Love is patient", we must be patient with those who do not return our love. Patience is showing self-control. "Love is kind", kindness is defined as giving attention, appreciation, and encouragement. We must make a choice if we want to love, show patience and kindness to, a person or not. Love takes humility, being authentic and without pretense or arrogance. It takes respect, treating others like they are important...BECAUSE THEY ARE. All people are important no matter who they are, what they've done or where they have come from. (getting off of my soapbox) Love takes selflessness, meeting the need of others. This does not mean giving everyone everything that they want. It means meeting someones legitimately required for their mental or physical well-being. Love takes forgiveness, giving up resentment when wronged. Forgiveness is not about pretending bad things didn't happen or not dealing with them as they arise. We must practice assertive behavior with others, not passive doormat behavior or aggressive behavior that violates the rights of others. Assertive behavior is being ope, honest, and direct with others but is always done in a respectful manner. Forgiving behavior is dealing with situations as they arise in an assertive manner and then letting go of any lingering resentment. Love takes honesty, being free from deception. Honesty is about clarifying expectations for people, holding people accountable, being willing to give the bad news as well as the good news, giving feedback, being consistent, predictable, and fair. Love requires commitment, sticking to your choices. We must be commitmented, dedicated to growing, stretching, and continuously improving an individual or group. I feel that these things are true for love in every relationship. Friends, parents, spouse, etc. This has been a very informal blog so I'll just end with
THE END