What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Here we are on our second post on “LOVE” and there’s been a great response. I’ll be featuring some wonderful guest bloggers who will share their stories &/or advice about building strong marriages that glorify God. You won’t want to miss their posts. I’m looking forward to your comments as we seek to encourage women in the marriages. You may write exactly what someone else needs to hear. Each comment will enter you in a drawing to win The Husband Project by Kathi Lipp.

Hearts, flowers and kisses everywhere you turn. It’s the season of love. In fact, it’s reported that about ten percent of all proposals take place on Valentine’s Day. A time to exhibit externally what is felt internally. But what exactly is love? Do we really understand it? Is it a just a feeling…something that makes our hearts flutter and our knees grow weak?

Love is an illusive word that dictionaries define as anything from a warm feeling to strong affection. But is that all it is? Do people make a lifelong commitment to one another based on a warm fuzzy feeling or a strong affection? If that’s all it is, then what does love really have to do with a “’til death do us part” kind of marriage?

The answer is…everything. Love has everything to do with it. But dictionaries fall seriously short of defining what love really is. The Bible, however, gives us a very descriptive and detailed definition of what love is by explaining what love does in 1 Corinthians 13.

Here’s what love is and what love is not:

Love is patient, Love is kind, Love is not jealous; Love does not brag, Love is not arrogant

Love does not act unbecomingly; Love it does not seek its own, Love is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but Love rejoices with the truth;

Love bears all things, Love believes all things, Love hopes all things, Love endures all things.

Love never fails!

I’m not sure why the dictionaries struggle so much in their attempts to define love, when the Bible makes it so very clear that it’s much more than a feeling. It’s what we choose to do. It’s what we choose not to do. We choose to be patient and kind. We choose to refrain from arrogance and selfishness.

As we enter the season that we celebrate “Love” it’s important to remember that love is more than a feeling, it’s a choice. Feelings fluctuate, but we can always choose to love…even when we don’t “feel” like it.

I remember being baffled after reading Titus 2 about how the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands. We already love our husbands…after all, we married them. Little did I realize that we are human and prone to losing that loving feeling. Sometimes, we’re just not feeling the love. So, what do we do?

Perhaps we’d be wise to filter our love for our husbands through the 1 Corinithians 13 “love test.” Ask yourself, “Am I being kind?” If not, you are not loving your husband. “Am I acting rude to or holding a grudge against my man?” If so, you aren’t loving him.

One of the most profound truths I have ever learned about loving my man is that love is much more than a feeling, it’s a choice. That means that even when I don’t feel like loving him, I can choose to love him. Feelings come and go, love never fails.

So, what’s love got to do with it? Everything…absolutely everything.

What is the most profound truth you have learned about loving your husband? What are some practical ways we can show our husbands that we love them?

2 Comments

  1. Love is definitely a choice…it's not a feeling or a passing whim. I might have started out “in love” with my husband – but now it is much deeper and stronger than that first “butterflies-in-the-stomach” feeling ever was.

    Respect is something that seems to get lost in the mix, I think, when we think of love. What I think is respectful, my hubby may not. Finding out what makes him feel respected and honored is always a good thing to do.

    Hmm.I think I need to follow my own advice. Now on a mission… 🙂

  2. Donna,
    I see you popped in over here. You are so right. I always say, “When the googoos are gone you're left with a choice.” Sounds like we have a lot in common. 🙂

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