“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.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Poets throughout the ages have tried to express what love is. Yet I believe there is no better words for describing love than the words of the apostle Paul.
It’s a check list for true love.
We live in a society where marriage is easy and divorce is easier. Divorce statistics are unbelievably high.
I think the reason we have such high rates of divorce is that we don’t know what love is.
Love in the twenty-first century seems to be mistaken for that bubbly feel good thing that we get around someone we like, or the feeling we get from having intimate relationships with someone.
While that may be part of an overall love relationship it is not entirely what love is. Love is more.
Love is there for the long haul.
I’ve been on this earth as of my last birthday sixty plus years. Thirty-four years of which have been in a loving marriage relationship.
My wife and I have gone through the feel good stage at one end and at the other end of the spectrum we’ve been totally ticked off at each other.
We’ve done things that drive each other insane. We still do. Never the less in the end we make up, cuddle up and still after all of these years enjoy being with each other.
I can honestly say that I can’t remember what our last disagreement was about. I just asked my wife if she could remember and she couldn’t.
We know we’ve argued, and had disagreements especially when we were younger. We are both very strong willed with very definite ideas on things. Our arguments at one time I’m sure could be heard across town. But in the end we kissed and made up.
But over the years our disagreements have actually become less and less. And we honestly upon reflection as I was preparing to write this, can’t remember much of what our arguments were about.
What we do remember is when we lived in the Toronto area travelling to Niagara Falls walking hand in hand for a short time before returning home, only to have to rush to the hospital so my wife could give birth to our first son.
We remember the little things, like holding hands when we went to church on Sunday. The reasons she has an artificial rose beside her computer.
When we were about to get married our pastor at the time quoted the above verses from 1 Corinthians Thirteen to us. He reminded us that true love is not a physical thing although that is a part of it.
He reminded us that true love is a spiritual union of two souls that become one.
Over the years we in our marriage we have proven that to be true. We look at what Paul wrote,
“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.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8aAnd we know it’s true.
Think about it.
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