Valentines Day! What better time to talk about love,what it is and what it isn't. Many do not choose to celebrate this day as it is a forced day of intimacy created by card companies,but it gives an opportunity for preachers to preach on love and people like me to write something on it. Singles dread this day as in many cases they feel left out more aware of their singleness. Love is about loving friends and family too. So look at it that way as well.
Love is not what you see in Hollywood movies. Love is a commitment. Love is being there no matter what. If you listen to the wedding vows of a traditional wedding it will say "For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer , forsaking all others, til death do us part." There are some marriage ceremonies who leave out that part. But marriage between a man and a woman is a sacred and holy event not to be taken lightly and a commitment to be kept.
Love also is not just a feeling. Feelings come and go. Love is about honor, protecting, putting the other person before yourself, and forgetting about yourself. Love is giving not taking. You may not always feel in love but sometimes love is a choice. Love learns to turn the other cheek and not pick fights. Love is kind and thinks of other people first. Love is not rude or demanding.
A perfect way to describe love and to see if you have love is to read 1 Corinthians 13 which is known as 'The Love Chapter' in the Bible and it in its' entirety says "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 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. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
I like the part in verse 5 where it says "love does not keep a record of wrongs" as one of the quickest ways to kill love is to always be bringing up the past and mistakes instead of forgetting about them. God forgives and forgets and we too are to be like Him and do likewise. Even loving a friend you learn to not dwell on their faults and mistakes.
Love is the greatest virtue to strive for. Colossians 3:14 says "Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony." Love is not just mushy stuff but it is truly wanting to show another person that they are first. Every day should be Valentines Day!
PRAYER: Lord it is my desire to display Christlike love to all those people in my life. In Jesus name. Amen.
Click on link to enjoy wonderful song from the movie 'Fireproof' which by the way you should rent if you have not seen it.
http://youtu.be/zxRDc-z6EcQ
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