All You Need is Love
“Love…is a many splendored thing.
Love… Lifts us up where we belong.
All you need is love…”
While Moulin Rouge might have been more of a lust story than a love story it at least gave us some memorable medleys about love (and was a darn good movie).
What is love? (Baby don’t hurt me)… Love, biblically is: patient, kind, not arrogant or boastful, selfless, forgiving, truthful, strong, trusting, hopeful, enduring, and everlasting… All the things that we as sinners seem to have such a hard time being.
Why is marriage so difficult? Because we aren’t loving. As soon as we lose our patience, or distrust our spouse, or hold onto a grudge about something s/he did, we are no longer loving. As soon as we decide we would rather selfishly sit on the couch then get in the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, garage, home office, or nursery and lend a hand we are no longer a loving spouse.
Why is parenting such a hardship? Because it is hard to be patient with three year old tantrums or a nine year old’s backtalk. It is hard to be kind when you have been working your fingers to the bone and your six year old demands some attention. It’s very tough as a finite creature to give endless amounts of discipline and instruction to little people.
Love is tough, it does not come naturally to most of us. Movies make it seem so easy. All you have to do is kiss and say some sweet nothings and your life will blossom with joy. Not so with reality.
In reality love is holding your pregnant wife’s hair while she loses her breakfast for the third time that day (for the record my gag reflex was too much. My wife was gracious enough to let me out of this halfway through her second pregnancy). Love is sitting down and helping your nine year old figure out her feelings or giving your six year old a much needed piggy back ride. Love is making your spouse lunch every day. Love is getting up and going to work every day (or staying at home to take care of things there) so your spouse can live out their gifts and talents (at home or in a workplace).
Love is ugly sometimes. It forces us to confront our own narcissism. It makes us crush ourselves so others may rise to greatness. Love frequently leaves us feeling spent and used. There is not always an immediate or even short term return on our investments.
But in the end (the love you take is equal to the love you make), love is worth every struggle and hardship. Every pain will be counted and rewarded.
God rewards our good deeds, and those done in love all the more.
I absolutely love the necessary truth in this!! Seriously. It is insane how skewed society's version of love is. I see nowadays so many people not quite understanding the core components of love. I spent 7 years of my life bowed down to a narcissist because I had the wrong idea of love. Perhaps by defining it more and more for those to see we can change the path of "love" in the future. Mislabeling is what has given rise to domestic violence and so many broken broken dreams. Among the innocent and adults. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and doing it so well!!
Thanks for your kind words. :)
I'm glad you got out of the bad situation you were in! Too many people stay in those places because they think they are loving their partner by allowing them to do whatever they want. That's not true love either. Love sometimes means putting a foot down and forcing change where there needs to be change. The most loving thing you can do in many situations is to confront bad behavior in the hope that the person can change and grow in a positive way. Sometimes the only way to do this is by straight up leaving.
Resteemed your post sir, as part of my free resteem service
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