love is;

Have you ever realized what a privilege it is to love someone? Have you ever stopped to consider how incredibly blessed we are to have the opportunity to love others?

It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. How grateful I am that God gives me the responsibility of loving.

I'm unbelievably saddened by how frequently I hear about people taking this privilege for granted. Somehow, people have distorted love into something that is completely self-seeking, something that is all about taking and hardly about giving. I don't know how it got that way, but I'm reminded of what Scripture tells me about love.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

That he lay down his life.

That we lay down our desires. Our wants. Our needs. For others. For the ones we love.

I'm tired of watching people be hurt by the ones they love, who somewhere along the line forgot to love them back. People who at some point started to ask the question, "but what's in it for me?"

The thought of falling into that trap scares me. It's scary because it's a trap that'll take my eyes off of Jesus and off of the example He set of what love is. Because He is the ultimate example of love. He did lay down His life for the ones He loves. He showed us what it is to be selfless.

I want to always love with that in mind. I want my love to be real, and honest and selfless. And I never want to take the opportunity to love someone for granted.

And I pray that others will love like that. Completely with others at heart, and completely laying their lives down in the process.

Isn't that what God has in mind?

"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