So what is Love?
How do I find it?
How do I define it?
Well, lets start with whats not Love.
Love is not a feeling. This quote explains it all.
"Love is not a feeling. If it was.. marriage vows make no sense… you can't promise to have a feeling. feelings change. Love is a commitment of the will to the true good of another person."
Love is not chemicals.
"A team of scientists recently found that romantic love involves chemical changes in the brain that last 12 to 18 months. After that, you and your partner are on your own."
Then what is it?
It is a verb? Is it a state of existence or mind? Is it a noun, where you can "accumulate" it and "assimilate" it into yourself?
From a Christian perspective, God is Love. What does that mean?
You look at one of the most quoted verses in the Bible 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
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. Love never fails.
It describes Love, but never tells you what Love IS. Only elsewhere do we see those same traits equated with the God of the Bible.
You might as well tell all of us that we can never Love or never possess Love...
What are some other definitions of Love?
"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth." - Mark Twain
"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." - Robert A. Heinlein
"Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you." -Sarah Dessen
"Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it" - Nicholas Sparks
"Where there is love there is life." -Ghandi
"Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." - Robert Frost
"Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell." - Joan Crawford
I still like my ex-suitemate's definition of Love the best. You can read it here:
Trust me. It is really good.
How do you find Love?
I have always wondered, whether the state of a person called "in love" lasts? I have equated it the combination of hormones and feelings, concocted by the body and soul. But is there more? Shouldn't a person love their friends, family, even their pets? What is the difference between a friendship and a romance, beside said chemicals and feelings which do not last.
Is there True Love?
People tell me young couples they know have True Love. I tell them you cannot be sure. I point them to the old couples I know, who have been through fire and water together, and that their "Love" has been tested by time and age. Maybe that is True Love. Still I cannot be sure. I guess Love is something to be experienced, not seen. Yet, sometimes in the streets, out of the corner of my eye, I do catch a glimpse of Love. Whether its a small gesture, or a fleeting sound, I know deep down in my heart that that's Love.
I still don't know exactly what Love is, nor do I know how to fully Love someone. Anyone. For me, understanding exactly what Love is means understanding God 100%. And everyone knows if you understand God, you might as well be God. So, thanks for following my thought process, and I hope to gradually come to understand Love more, unclouded by ignorance, unhampered by jealousy. God is Love (1 John 4:16).
Edit: Can the words "Care" and "Love" be interchanged? It is so much easier to say "I care for someone" then to say "I Love them." Especially in the unconditional sense, fellowship sense.
