This is How We Know What Love Is….

It seems like no one wants to fight for anything anymore.

As I was flipping through some popular magazine while getting my toes painted the other day, I was reminded of how just about every advertisement and article presses our false sense of entitlement.

I know I am the queen of stepping into that trap.

I’m often suckered into thinking that I “deserve” to be comfortable in every avenue of life….. at no cost. If anything challenges my comfort, invades my space, or disagrees with my taste, the world would have me disconnect from it immediately and move on to something else.  My Dad (who manages two TV stations), calls it “changing the channel.”

The saddest victims of this mentality, as seen on just about any popular movie or show, are relationships.

These days, commitment is fast becoming an old-fashioned idea, and when “that old feeling” starts to wane, rather that fight for love, we are led astray by what we read, watch, and hear, and are tempted to take the easy road….to love ourselves first.

As the old adage goes, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”…..right?

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

What worth is there in settling for the easy way out? What do we gain by loving only ourselves and putting ourselves first?

Sisters, whether you are single, married, never been kissed, or have been through the ringer of broken relationships and divorce, no matter where you are in life, you are a daughter of the Most High. He has designed you for love….to be loved, and to give love.  It was out of his perfect love for you that he went to the cross, gave up his own life so that you could know love in its purest form. Oh, that we would cling to these words of truth, and let them be our guide in our fight for true love:

“Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, 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. “

[ 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7, emphasis mine]

Nothing that is WORTH pursuing in life is easy……. TRUE love is costly.      True love DIES to self.

“This is how we know what love is:

Jesus Christ lay down his life for us.”

(1 John 3:16)