What is Love?

I read that title and Haddaway’s song start’s playing in my head!
“What is love? Baby, don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me no more.”

Come on, own up. You were singing it too.

But really. I want to dissect the word love today.

I know this has been done a million times, but I want to do it for me. I feel like it is so easy to say I love someone, but to actually show them the real, nitty-gritty, hard to swallow, Biblical concept of love is a totally different story. The Bible best describes love in the popular Corinthians verses:

^“4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
I Corinthians 13:4-7

This is what I want to break apart. I can read these verses a hundred times a day and they will still just be words to me until I take them piece by piece and try to apply them to my life. I hope you join me for this self-revealing journey!

***A quick disclaimer – I don’t know where I am going with this. It may just be one post, it may turn into a series of posts. I’m just typing what is heavy on my heart right at this moment. When it is time to start dinner I will stop and publish the post (to avoid another drafted post getting forgotten) and we will see where it goes from there.

So let’s take the first portion of verse 4.

“Love is patient…”

Patience according to Dictionary.com
1) the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
2) quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence.

I feel like this is something I struggle with on a daily basis! Oh man…I can only imagine what it will be like when we have children!! Lord, help me!

To love patiently is to have steady perseverance and be even tempered, no matter the situation. Dealing with the many worldly issues that come up in a relationship without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, etc.

Oh man…I struggle. I complain. I lose my temper. I get irritated. All it takes is one misdirected comment or one misinterpreted gesture or tone and I’m gone. How do I work with this? How do I turn my love for someone into a love filled with patience?

Jesus and his relationship with his disciples comes to mind. It didn’t matter how many times Jesus told them who he was and what his purpose was they just didn’t get it! And then even worse was Peter’s denial of the Christ! Even still, Jesus was always patient towards them.

I can’t figure out an easy fix to be more like Jesus. Let’s face it, Christianity isn’t an easy fix to life’s issues. It is an ever-growing and ever-learning lifestyle. I feel like the best way to show patient love to those around me requires diving deep into the Word of God, focusing on applying His truth to my life through seeking Him and memorizing scripture, spending a lot of time in prayer, and taking a deep breath and refocusing my attitude when frustration or impatience sets in.

I pray God continues to lay it upon my heart to focus on loving the way Jesus does. The way He has commanded me to.

Well, it is time to go cook dinner! It’s Mexican Night in the Bleckley household!
Thanks for sticking through all my ramblings (: