Love

We can now safely put Valentine's Day behind us for another year, the price of flowers can go back to normal and tables will be available at restaurants again. But it has made me think about love, what is it? how do I express it? who do I show or give it to?

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul says quite a lot about love,

"Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and it's faith, hope and patience never fail."

That gives us quite a lot to live up to when we tell someone we love them. If I was to put me name in the place of of the word love it would read "Paul is patient and kind; he is not jealous or conceited or proud; Paul is not ill mannered or selfish or irritable etc. etc." well I can only pray that one day this may be true, but for now I think I, and most of us, fall well short. Can this be because I don't really love? Well last night I certainly told my wife that I do love her so what does that mean?

One thing I am sure of is that love is not a feeling, no that slushy warm feeling that we sometimes confuse with love is sentiment. Love is about decisions, and actions. Love is a choice we make to put the considerations of another before our own. If we rely on sentiment alone to build our relationships, they cannot last maybe this is one of the reasons why so many relationships end early, certainly any marriage that ends before the death of one of the partners ends early. I mean sometimes we have to chose to love whether we feel like it or not, and maybe those are the times when we truly show the greatest love.

Sorry if all this is a little confused and not fully thought through, but then that could a description of it's author - if you have been, thank you for reading