Love is the greatest of these...

After being away for several days, I reluctantly came back home. One of my best friends has been after me to take a look at a book: The Love Dare, Day by Day. He even offered to mail the book to me. I picked it up a month or so ago, but haven't even opened it. After I got the kids in bed sleeping & laid down myself I remembered about it. I wasn't really tired yet, so I picked it up to glance through a few pages.

WOW!

A week ago, I may have found it all pretty blah, but to read this today I have no other way to explain it other than amazing.

I'm not exactly sure why Steven thought I should look at this book & I'm not sure why I chose today to be the day to open it up. I'm not sure what the rest of the book will mean to me & I have no idea what the rest of the book contains. But...I do know that I completely understand what this entry is saying & that it gave me chills to be able to understand & realize that I know what this kind of love is like.


This Week's DareBegin praying this week: "Lord, teach me what real love is and make me a loving person."

If I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.1 Corinthians 13:2
Loving God and others is what life is really about. No matter who you are or what you do, it comes down to whether you'll live a life of love or not. And there is a vast difference between the two. One is priceless...and one is meaningless.
Love is the most important ingredient to any meaningful relationship. It is fundamental to true significance. Your quality of life is directly tied to the amount of love flowing in you and through you to others. Though it's often overlooked, love is infinitely more valuable than riches, fame or honor. They will pass away, but love remains. You can be fulfilled without these, but not without love.
The absence of love leaves a devastating void. When it is not present, your spirituality becomes superficial, your benevolent deeds self-centered, and your sacrifices insincere. In any relationship where love is not your motivation, you can expect it to feel bland and unfulfilling - if not meaningless. When asked to identify life's greatest command, Jesus summed it up this way: to love God with all you are and to love your neighbor as yourself. Will you embrace a life of love?

I was once told that love is just a word until you find somebody that gives it definition. I believe that because I did find that somebody. I found that definition a while ago but I haven't tried to very actively pursue it because it scares me. I've tried to redefine it, but I've never been able to get that amazing, uncontrollable feeling up until a couple months ago. In the past several days I've learned why: love can't be redefined when the definition you find is so real & so true. Nothing will ever redefine what I know the definition of love to be.  He may never even know...I may be crazy to even think the way I think...but there;s something I can't explain.  (Honestly, I do think I'm crazy.)

It is amazing to me that I opened this book today & read this entry today. Thank you Steven for encouragiung me to get this book...your timing, or more-so my timing of glancing through it, could not have been better!

I know that priceless love because I know what it's like not having it. I know what that devastating void feels like when love is absent from your life. I know how it feels bland, unfulfilling & meaningless to be in a relationship that isn't motivated by that definition of love that I learned so many years ago.

To have that definition of love back in my life, even if it's in my own head, I am amazed at the instant warm feeling flowing through my body again. When love was absent, I felt empty & alone...nothing ever really made me happy. To think that I finally know what it feel like to truly love, I can't help but smile. I'm not smiling for no reason - I'm smiling because I have reason to smile. I'm smiling because I know that definition of love is there.

I used to think that security was more important than love or happiness. I learned the hard way that it is not. I can be happy without security if I know I have love. I have learned that I can not be happy with security if I do not have love.

I may not "have" that love that I know exists, but now I know what to look for.  Now I know that I CAN actually feel & regardless of whether I get it back in return, it's still a great feeling inside,