Today was Valentine’s Day, the day when many are either pleasantly pleased or disgruntled with the circumstances in their romantic life. I had a wonderful day, not really doing anything special. Well, actually I did get to help my 5th grader with a “special” state project, but that’s a WHOLE different story. My hubby and I spent the day with our family, enjoying each other’s company and I think everyone had a great day. No one felt that to call Valentine’s Day a success we had to have a big romantic plan, we were cool just being. Love is strange and sometimes our expectations of what we believe it should be, really set us up for disappointment.
Today I took a look at the perfect definition of love…God’s definitions of Love. In 1 Corinthians 13 verses 4-7, there’s a perfect example of what love is.
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. – 1 Corinthians 13 4-7
I’ve looked at these verses before but never from this particular point of view, the view of a child. I was with my Sunday School class of 1st thru 3rd graders and we talked about showing love to others, not romantic love. It actually really made me think. Do we even think about how we show love to those around us? Do we use this perfect example as our guide? Is there room for improvement?
The apostle Paul shared these “love is” thoughts as our guide, and we definitely need a guide, but while we’re talking about Valentine’s Day, is there a perfect gift of love? Yep, there’s an example there too… Jesus gave the perfect gift, not necessarily on Valentine’s Day, but it was the perfect gift. The gift of Himself. His gift to us is salvation, our salvation thru His death on the cross. There’s nothing you need to do earn this gift, just receive Him, and the gift is yours. Now that’s Love.