Love is a word that is often misused and abused. When a person thinks of love, they most often imagine red hearts, heart eyed emojis, and Valentine’s day chocolates. However, love goes so much deeper than these superficial objects. Love is a spirit deep emotion that is lived out in our daily lives. Neither the space of time, events, nor land can affect love. It is a self-giving emotion that seeks the betterment of others.
“I just love this denim dress!” Often applied to objects rather than to people in statements such as this one, most people do not realize that this feeling is not actually love. Love cannot be applied to objects but rather, is applied only to people. The word “love” has been so abused that most people do not think of, nor understand, that it is not a shallow feeling that can be applied to any old thing. Love is such a deep emotion that it cannot possibly be applied to objects over people.
Likewise, when you are truly loved, nothing you can ever do or say will remove that love from you. It is impossible to stop loving someone if it is real love. Real love is not affected by the actions of the other person; instead it always loves them whether they have done right or wrong. The most common example of this is that of children who have strayed into rebellion and bad places. If their parents truly love them, they will not stop loving them when their child does something wrong. Rather, they are grieved and try all the harder to show their child love in hopes that they will return to what they know is right.
Love gives of itself, preferring to serve others rather than itself. Love does not wish to please itself, but the object of its love. Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India and the founder of Dohnavur Fellowship in India, said, “You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.” Amy had the right idea here, that without giving something to any type of relationship, whether that be parent to child, child to parent, sibling to sibling, friend to friend, or even girl to guy, a relationship has no real love if something is not being given or given up for the other person. This can be as simple as allowing the other person to win an argument, allowing them to choose which restaurant to eat at, and not always insisting on your own way.
To conclude, love is not a fleeting feeling that can be here today and gone tomorrow. Instead, love is a soul deep emotion that does not rely on merit or good behavior. Real love is neither earned nor lost. It continues through space and time and is everlasting. It gives of itself to others even when they have nothing to give in return. Expecting nothing, it gives everything.
You might have noticed that this post doesn't have the easy, laidback style of an article, and that's because it's not an article. The bit of writing above is an essay I wrote as a school assignment that I wanted to share with you. And, as always, thank you for your encouragement in the comments! Have a wonderful rest of the week.
