Challenge for the Day

Dictionary.com says...

Love

1. A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.
2. A feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person with whom one is disposed to make a pair; the emotion of sex and romance.
3. 1. Sexual passion.
   2. Sexual intercourse.
   3. A love affair.
4. An intense emotional attachment, as for a pet or treasured object.

To my mind, this generally what people think when they think of love. They think of being swept off their feet, becoming intoxicated with someone and generally living "happily ever after". They think that if it causes them too much hassle, then it can't be love.

God says...

"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

If you asked Joe Public on the street if this piece of scripture has any truth to it, then I'm sure they'd say that it's completely right. He probably wouldn't stop to think about what doing those things actually means. I mean how easy is...

• ..patience?
• ..kindness?
• ..being genuinly happy for someone instead of jealous?
• ..not boasting when you've got something to boast about?
• ..not being arrogant?
• ..being polite all the time?
• ..putting someone else first all the time?
• ..holding back resentment?
• ..being joyful when someone else is right?
• ..putting up with anything the other person dishes out to you?
• ..believing in and hoping for someone someone for years and years?
• ..putting up with anything and everything?
• ..doing this for your whole life...?

These are not easy things to do or be, even when you're head-over-heels in love with somebody.

God wants us to be like this to everyone.