What is Love? by Pamela Ballard

In order to love you must clothe yourself in mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness. You must leave room for error and forgive the person who offends you (Col 3:12-13). This is a simple formula on how to love people but not so simple to do. Why is that? We no longer live in a society where turn the other cheek applies. It has become more like ‘an eye for an eye’ or ‘tooth for a tooth’. But where does that get us? Nowhere... Most of the time we are afraid to love because we want to protect ourselves from hurt. How ironic is that, to protect yourself from love when love is the most important piece of armor you will ever wear? Love is what binds us together. Love is good. Love is pure. Love is power. Love is trustworthy. Love speaks truth. Love communicates. Love forgives. Love transforms. Love strengthens. Love restores. Love can conquer fear. Love does all these things but yet you may still say you don’t know how to love. Well let’s go to where it all began... It began with God. He loved us so much He gave us His only begotten Son. John 4:16 says God is Love. So if He created us in His image, we all have the capacity to love. While we may not love perfectly and overlook faults the way that God does, our love still has the power to make the impossible seem possible. Love is a choice that you make. When you are offended or wronged by someone, even though you’re mad at the person you can choose to continue the relationship whether it is family, friends, marriage or business. That is because love acts as an entity that has a character of its own. 1Corinthians 13:4-8 says 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, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails. In order to become a star athlete you have to practice. Love is the same way. You can’t just say I love you, you have to show it. It’s easy to say if it doesn’t come with a cost. Practice makes perfect. Sometimes relationships fail, not because we don’t give love, but because we won’t receive love. We have failed at relationships in the past and never moved past the hurt so we guard ourselves. Instead of absorbing love like a sponge, we let it bounce off us. 1John 4:18-19 says Such love has no fear because perfect love expels fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of judgment, and this shows that his love has not been perfected in us. We love Him, because He first loved us. This implies that we must receive love before we can give it away. Sometimes we see love as a hindrance instead of the good things it has to offer. We feel if we get “caught up” it becomes a distraction. Some of us grew up seeing no communication between the family, some saw our fathers go to work and pay the bills and thought that was love. Some who had no father in the home, subjected to different types of abuse or adversity, still have another outlook on what love is. Yet there are some in spite of the lack of affection, they still are able to love affectionately because it’s a choice they made. This is why it is so important to trace love back to its roots—God. Without him there can be no love. While this relationship is the ultimate one we should seek first, realize God uses people to love through them to get to you. In turn He uses you to love and reach others. So the most important relationship of love is the one you have with yourself. You must give love to yourself so you’ll know how to receive it. How do you do that? You see only the best in you, and you share that with others. Love is a gift that keeps on giving.