True Love

Being in love is such a wonderful experience. The saying goes, "better to have loved once than to never have loved at all." How romantic of a saying, but unfortunately that only applies to fairy tales. You see, love goes beyond the shallowness of emotions. Feeling warm and fuzzy about someone has very little to do with real love. The chemistry and attraction we seem to need as the elements to lead us into a loving relationship are fleshly desires that will absolutely change with time. You see, true love never ends. That is why the only true love is the one that comes from God. And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them. 1John 4:16

We strive each day to feel real love, missing the point that love is not a feeling but a decision. Image a person saying they can only marry someone that is good looking. Imagine that after marrying that person, they have a deformed child or the good looking spouse burns their face in an accident. The importance of the appearance would mean nothing to a person who really loved their child and spouse. We all are getting older and we all are subject to possibly being disfigured in an accident. We hope that we would have people in our lives that will truly love us unfailingly. If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen. 1 John 4:20

If we believe in Christ as our Lord and Savior we should love God, which means that we obey His commands. By this it will be clear to all men that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. John 13:35 God has promised eternal life to those who believe and eternal damnation to those who don't. That is why Christ, who is the representation of the Father, who is love, tells us; Even so it is not the pleasure of your Father in heaven for one of these little ones to come to destruction. Matthew 18:14 Love is stronger than hate. Love disciplines for good. Love is the reason we do not tolerate sin. A tool for those who want to love is to understand love as "L" for listening,"O" for observe, "V" for validate, "E" for edify.

Those we love or want to love are those who listen to us carefully; observe us close enough to learn who we are; validate us by valuing our thoughts and feelings; and those who edify us by encouraging us to become who God wants us to be-better people.