Thursday 13 - Love Defined

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Esmé's Mommy here

I’ve gone through hundreds of quotes on what love is. By most worldly standards, love is very disappointing. Even the best of definitions creates more questions than answers.

God is love. That is the only absolute I’ve found in my quest to define love.

Here are thirteen other attempts to define love. I don’t necessarily agree with them. They all leave me wondering and searching for more. But they do make me think and give me a little glimpse into that nebulous concept of love.

1. Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail. Love is eternal. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
   
   Beautiful. Something to strive for. Idealistic. Is it possible in a relationship other than God's love for us?
   
   
2. Love is as strong as death; its jealousy as unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire; like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love, rivers cannot wash it away. Song of Songs 8:6-7
   
   If this is true, why does love seem so easily quenched? Was it never really love to begin with? Also, love doesn’t always burn like a blazing fire – sometimes it creeps softly - and that doesn’t make it any less.
   
   
3. In real love you want the other person's good. In romantic love you want the other person." Margaret Anderson
   
   Not a complete definition by any means, but it is a good test in determining if love is real.
   
   
4. Love is when you give him your heart, and he rips it to pieces and throws it on the floor, but you pick the pieces up and hand him your heart right back.
   
   Not a pretty definition, but if you’ve gone through this, you know it is a pretty good definition.
   
   
5. If love was a choice, who would choose such exquisite pain? "Anna and the King"
   
   'nough said . . .
   
   
6. Love isn't perfect. It isn't a fairytale or a storybook, and it doesn't always come easy. Love is overcoming obstacles, facing challenges, fighting to be together, holding on and never letting go. Love is work, but most of all, love is realizing that every hour, every minute, every second of it was worth it because you did it ... together.
   
   
7. As we grow up, we learn that even the one person who wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken, probably more than once, and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend, and you might even fall in love with him. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing so fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too hard, and love like you've never been hurt, because every minute you spend mad or upset is a minute of happiness that you'll never get.
   
   
8. Love is not about letting go, but rather fighting for the one you love.
   
   So often people quote that love is letting the person go and hoping he comes back to you. But God will NEVER let you go. While He gives you freedom, He keeps His claim on you and keeps fighting for you until the end.
   
   
9. Love is giving someone the ability to hurt you but trusting them not to!
   
   Let's modify this a little: True love is giving someone the ability to hurt you even when you KNOW they are going to hurt you.
   
   
10. Sometimes your head is telling you to use common sense, but your heart is telling you to go with what you feel. After everything I've been through, I've come to define love as when your head and your heart agree, when everything inside of you is screaming 'This is right.'
    
    
11. Love is not measured by how you feel, but how you make the other person feel.
    
    I agree. A similar quote I like is: Love is about creating happiness, not about being happy.
    
    
12. Love is much in winning yet is more in losing.
    
    I find two meanings in this. First, love is found more in losing ourselves for the sake of the other than in winning the other.
    
    Second, when love is lost, invisible, at its darkest point, when there seems nothing left to love and both are emotionally bankrupt, when it seems crazy to think you can go on together, hang in there. If you stick it out and make it through, you will look back and see this was love's finest hour, the moment when love shone the brightest.
    
    
13. Love is a mystery that can never be solved, a dream that will never come completely true. Love is what we look foward to every day of our lives.
    
    And therein is a beauty of love. Love never gets boring. Even God's love for us is beyond our comprehension, a "mystery that can never be solved." And that mystery keeps us looking for love and working towards it and longing for it all of our lives.

A bonus quote to end this off: Love is the answer to the greatest question ever asked, 'why?'

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Quotes here, unless otherwise noted, were found at www.lovingyou.com and were listed as "Source unknown."