Love is.....messy

I have a vivid memory of reading the comics with my Dad on Sunday mornings.  I had some favorites but a strong memory is the "Love is" comics by Kim Casili.

I loved this comic because it gave life to what love is.....

Now as an adult it gives me a whole new perspective.  I have the burden of seeing life as an adult not as a child.   I see the bad and the good.   Then toss in my education in theology and it adds a whole new perspective. 

So, I ask you, "What is love?"

I am not an expert at all.  I am just a person living my life.  But, I am writing a blog so I will give my opinion...

This is our problem.....and where we are totally correct.....

Love is in the relationships.  Each individual relationship.  It is not a one size fits all love.

I love my parents/family.....that love is pure and true....but it is a love that fits that relationship.  It is a love that has changed over time and had ups and downs, but it is true love.

I love my husband.  I can't not imagine a better match for me.  That being said I (we) have days that love wins.   It is not a perfect relationship....why?   Because that is not real.  Love is perfect, but we are human and in our humanity we will make mistake and hurt each other.   But the love will win.

I love my children.  This is a love that again has changed over time and I hope and pray that it will continue to do so.  I love my children.  I wish the English language had different words for love because my love for my kids is so different than any other love.  It is not better or greater it is completely different.   This love is also so very real and true.

I love my friends.   This love is totally different because I have a relationship with each friend that is different.  One friend is not greater than the other, the love is true and constant.

I think that sometime we forget about what love really is.  It is not some movie screen or commercial add.  It is real and real life gets messy.  It is full of emotions that I would rather have than not, but at times they are messy.

Love is constant.   Love is true.   Love is something that we all aspire to do and at times fall short of.

This is what I know and believe:

I love God. I love the people in my life.  I love my family.  I love my friends.  Each love is different, but each love is true.   That does not mean that I like each member of my family or my friends every day.....but the love holds true.

I am about to through a bible verse up in here so get ready...

1 Corinthians 13 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Gift of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

 Read this again and see what stands out to you:  Who do you love?  Why do you love?  Who SHOULD you love?

This hits me because sometimes in my "love" I am: angry, envious, arrogant and totally rude.   But, because of the love I can simmer down and know and remember the emotions that come out what the relationship is grounded in....LOVE.  

The gift of love in my life is the greatest gift....it is what I hope to be remembered by.   

Perspective:  I say...love someone today.....why?.......I say....why not.  In that love you can forgive, in that love you can leave, in that love you can have peace.   Love is messy and real but it can be the answer to many problems.