True Love

What is true love?

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. Love never fails.
—I Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV)

This verse describes the characteristics of true love. These qualities can certainly be found in all truly loving relationships, be it the love of a mother for her child or a child's love for his parents, or love for your spouse or the one whom you think should be your spouse or soulmate.

The problem with trying to "find" love in our dating lives, is that too often we don't look for these characteristics. Rather we look at physical appearance, popularity, or wealth. These are not the qualities that God looks at and neither should we. We should love like God, with true heart.

The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.—I Samuel 16:7b (NIV)

Love is best seen as devotion and action, not an emotion. Love is not exclusively based on how we feel. Certainly our emotions are involved, but they cannot be our only criteria for love. True devotion will always lead to action - true love.Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with ACTIONS and in truth.
I John 3:18 (NIV)

Identifying True Love

We can only identify true love and know when we have found it, based on the Word of God. When we match our relationships up to what God says that love is -- and we are honestly prepared to make a life-long commitment to that person -- then we can say that we are truly "in love." The three keys to that statement are:

We have to…

1. Look at the Word of God.
2. Be completely honest with ourselves.
3. Understand the level of commitment that comes with true love.

Love is a responsibility, a careful thought which never lets you hurt the person you love, even if you hurt unintentionally, it hurts you even more. It's a thought to keep the person you love happy forever.

Love is eternal, it's to always be with someone, in both good as well as bad times.

Love should be your strength, as well as it should give strength to the person whom you love.