THE WAY OF LOVE

Today is Valentine's Day---a holiday that in all truth can be extremely difficult for those of us who are single.  It can be a reminder of our aloneness-

The media bombards us--you begin to feel as if the entire world consists of couples--except for you.  Everyone seems to be celebrating the day as two.  I scheduled a massage a month ago for this day--in an effort to celebrate and enjoy.  I had a call last week---they needed me to reschedule my appointment because of all the couple massage requests coming in---I cancelled my appointment.  Banging my head against the wall is quite painful--and sitting in a waiting room filled with loving couples would be the equivalent of head banging.  I am overjoyed when I see a happy couple-it

 takes two to make it work-but I need to know my aloneness is OK too.

 

My head KNOWS this is NOT reality--the world is not filled with loving couples.  I have a plethora of single friends----but my heart---it is difficult to speak reality to my heart. Today is a difficult day---when you are alone-

Today will pass and tomorrow will once again come--until then I am reminded of the true meaning of LOVE-


I Corinthians-

13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.