Love

What is love? So many people spend their whole lives searching for it, but don't know what it looks like or how to find it. So many songs have been written asking "What is love?" "Is this love?" "When will I find love?"
The Bible talks about love from start to finish. It depicts the love of family, the love of friends and neighbors, romantic love and most importantly the love of God. It says that "God is love" (1 John 4:16). In 1 Corinthians love is described with many different adjectives:
Love is patient and kind; loves 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.
All of the words used to describe what love is and what it is not are action words. Kindness does not simply sit dormant in a person, but it is revealed through their actions and words. Patience is not expressed by oneself, but in the presence of those around him/her. Insisting on one's own way could be expressed verbally or non-verbally through one's actions, but it is an expression both ways.
I love the song, "Love is a Verb" by DC Talk. I remember my brother listening to it when we were younger and I never understood what the song was saying. There is another song called "Love is Not a Fight" by Warren Barfield. The lyrics are absolutely moving. It says that, "To some, love is a word that they can fall into. But when they're falling out keeping that word is hard to do." It goes on to say that love is a shelter in a raging storm - describing love as a safety net in ways. Another part of the song discusses that "Love is not a place to go as we please. It's a house we enter in and then commit to never leave."

Love is a choice. We choose to love the people closest to us; it is not something we follow by obligation, but something we do out of the choice we made to remain faithful and steadfast to that other person - regardless of if it is a friend, spouse, or a family member we haven't seen in 10+ years. We reveal that love through our actions and words to communicate the choice we have made in our hearts.

Many of my friends have gotten married or engaged in the last year or so. I am so excited to see where God takes them with their newly found significant other and the plans that he unfolds before them. My prayer for all of you is that you will always remember that love is an active choice that we make. May you actively love your families and friends around you through your words and actions; love is the number one commandment God asks of us because it is the most important for both the Lord and those around us. We all need to know that we are loved and feel it strongly so that we can remind ourselves of that love when we are feeling unloved.