This was suggested as a new thread. So, great.
Here is what I taught my teen classes and my own kids.
Love has emotions connected to it, but it, itself is not an emotion. It is a conscious, volitional decision to care for someone at least as much as you care for yourself and sometimes more. It is a choice you make to put someone else ahead of you in your life.
A comet is an interesting picture of love. It's all bright and fiery on the outside, and lovely to look at, but the inside is rock and ice: caring and commitment. All that outside stuff is the emotions that come along with it.
Love doesn't always feel good. We read in the Bible that God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son. How did the Father feel when the Son was being mocked, scourged, and then nailed to an instrument of torture? It probably wasn't 'good'! How does a mother feel when she gets up to a sick child for the fourth time at night, desperately tired herself? Not good. But deeply caring. Deeply commited.
We are not talking here about sex, although in married love that is a wonderful expression of the love. By itself sex is not love, even though they call it 'making love.'
To love someone, to commit to them, to care for them, is a choice you make. If it came naturally, then we would not have to be reminded in the Bible to love God and love our neighbor. Men would not have to be reminded to love their wives. Love -- real love -- is not a natural reaction, even of a mother for a child. If it were, no mothers would abandon or hurt their children. But even a mother and a father have to choose to commit themselves to their children. Some don't.
It's even harder to really commit to someone who is 'just a neighbor.' But we are commanded to do that. We are commanded to care for the people around us as much as we care for ourselves. We can obey or not obey. Our choice.
In the long run, though, real love can only come from God and only be expressed by us human beings when we are indwelt by God. Really loving someone takes more strength and endurance and care than we have on our own. So if you want to really love, and really know what love is, you have to choose God first. You have to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and HIS righteousness (which is Christ), and He has promised that everything else we need will be added unto that.
And we all need to love and to be loved.
That's what I told my kids and my students.
Here is what I taught my teen classes and my own kids.
Love has emotions connected to it, but it, itself is not an emotion. It is a conscious, volitional decision to care for someone at least as much as you care for yourself and sometimes more. It is a choice you make to put someone else ahead of you in your life.
A comet is an interesting picture of love. It's all bright and fiery on the outside, and lovely to look at, but the inside is rock and ice: caring and commitment. All that outside stuff is the emotions that come along with it.
Love doesn't always feel good. We read in the Bible that God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son. How did the Father feel when the Son was being mocked, scourged, and then nailed to an instrument of torture? It probably wasn't 'good'! How does a mother feel when she gets up to a sick child for the fourth time at night, desperately tired herself? Not good. But deeply caring. Deeply commited.
We are not talking here about sex, although in married love that is a wonderful expression of the love. By itself sex is not love, even though they call it 'making love.'
To love someone, to commit to them, to care for them, is a choice you make. If it came naturally, then we would not have to be reminded in the Bible to love God and love our neighbor. Men would not have to be reminded to love their wives. Love -- real love -- is not a natural reaction, even of a mother for a child. If it were, no mothers would abandon or hurt their children. But even a mother and a father have to choose to commit themselves to their children. Some don't.
It's even harder to really commit to someone who is 'just a neighbor.' But we are commanded to do that. We are commanded to care for the people around us as much as we care for ourselves. We can obey or not obey. Our choice.
In the long run, though, real love can only come from God and only be expressed by us human beings when we are indwelt by God. Really loving someone takes more strength and endurance and care than we have on our own. So if you want to really love, and really know what love is, you have to choose God first. You have to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and HIS righteousness (which is Christ), and He has promised that everything else we need will be added unto that.
And we all need to love and to be loved.
That's what I told my kids and my students.
