Well, it’s Valentine’s Day and you romantics will be finding, if you haven’t already, clever ways to express your love to your Valentines with chocolates, hearts and roses! Hopefully you’ve got all that covered … but there may be a better way to demonstrate our love …
Today is a day to celebrate love … and we know that God is love … and that He is the source of the unconditional and unbreakable love we all need to make our marriages thrive. So, let’s take a look at a familiar passage … I Corinthians 13 … that never stops teaching us something about love … to look for an even better Valentine’s Day gift for our beloved.
I’m going to break it down into Paul’s outline of: what love is … what love is not … and what love always does …
What love is
- Love is Patient … it’s forgiving and extending grace while we are in process of growing Christ-like … it’s steady and persevering …
- Love is Kind … it doesn’t speak or act harshly … it is considerate … calm and gentle …
What love is not
- Love is not jealous or envious it doesn’t feel discontented … it’s not longing for what another person or couple has …
- Not proud and boastful it looks for ways to put others first …
- Does not dishonor … love doesn’t embarrass, belittle, disgrace or bring shame to others …
- Love is not proud and egotistical … it isn’t demanding its own way … to have my needs met first …
- Love is not angered easily … doesn’t fly off the handle quickly … is looking for connection …
- Love does not keep score of wrongs … doesn’t hold grudges and is willing to forgive and move on …
- Love does not delight in evil … but looks for ways to bring help and healing …
What love always does …
- Love Rejoices with the truth … it celebrates the good things … and even the “challenging” things that we know are coming from God to make us better …
- Love Always protects … love looks for ways to shelter our beloved from harm …
- Love Always hopes … it is expecting and desiring the best …
- Love Always keeps on loving … even when the loving feeling isn’t there …
- the unconditional love of God never fails … we can rest on this assurance of His unbreakable love …
Take a minute to ask your beloved: “Which one of these descriptors of love do you need from me today?” …
I’ll bet that meeting that need in his or her life will be the best valentine’s gift ever …
