Love is just a simple word with four letters but its definitions varies to each one. A week from now, we will celebrate Valentines Day as we all know - a special day for lovers, not just for lovers literally but it is a special day for everyone especially to our loved ones. How will we define love?
I am writing this not because I am in love but because I just want to know deeper what is the real meaning of love. Yes, I am a married man to my beautiful wife of course last November 2018. I am blessed and thankful I finally decided to settle down at the age of 31. I admit I had no serious relationship with girls before because studies and career were my priority. But as years went by, I realized I need to be with someone; I need to raise my own family and see my children growing.
LOVE is not just a feeling that we can express to our special someone like what lovers do but it is a feeling that is ultimate and by nature we have it in our hearts and must put it into action so that others may know that we truly loved them. It is easy to say “I love you” to someone but do you really mean it? We can’t fool love because it speaks about truth and it goes beyond the sweet words we uttered.
Allow me to share these Scriptural verse since I like this chapter from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy and does not boast. It is not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and never fails” There are 16 important and real statements here that I want to emphasize because it signifies the real meaning of love.
1. It is patient. Why patient? Because when you love someone, you will learn how to wait. It’s like when you are courting someone, you must be patient enough because some girls like to prolong the agony. If you are a professional, this is must be a character one must have. As a teacher, you must be patient to your erring students. As a nurse or doctor, you must be patient to your patients because you do not know the exact day that all of them will be okay. If you are an employee, this must be evident that patient is a virtue. If you are a parent, you must be patient to your children.
2. It is kind. Yes it is, love is kind. We are like a Good Samaritan to some strangers. Even if we don’t know them personally, but when we have that love inside, we become kind to others. Consider someone in a street who is selling sampaguita or other goods, even if you don’t need those items, you willingly buy what they are selling because you want to help them. It is like seeing someone standing in a bus especially the elder ones, you want to offer your seats because you want them not to stand long. If you are kind to others, how much more to you own family or to the one whom you love the most?
3. It does not envy. If you love what you are doing; if you love your husband/wife; if you love the people you are working now; if you love the simple things you have in life now, you will be contented with it. Envy is a feeling of discontented; a desire to have more. Sometimes life is unfair because others have more while some suffer with less. Some Filipinos have this crab mentality especially when someone achieves more in life. They want them to pull backwards and be one of them on the same level or status in life. My fiend, do not envy instead learn to love what you have in life no matter how small, simple and ordinary it is. It is how we perceived things matters.
4. It is not rude. When we love others, we want to pleased them and be good to them at all times. As what the Bible says, “love covers multitude of sins” and that includes our negative or bad attitudes. We show love even to the unloveable people. I like the values we have, as a Filipino, we used the word “Po or Opo” as a sign of respect to someone especially to the older people. We have this “Bayanihan Spirit” especially when natural disaster comes like typhoons and earthquakes. We share what we have like personal belongings and some monetary values to those who were affected even if we don’t know them.
There are still 8 important views from 1 Corinthians 13 that I want to share from my viewpoint on my next post. I am not a pastor, I am a Christian. How are you today? Hope we will all experience Christ love for us to fully understand and experience what love means in 1 Corinthians 13. God bless everyone.
