{True Love Tuesdays}

In honor of love month, I'm dedicating the next few Tuesdays to true love. I wrote this a few years ago, but I re-read it not that long ago, and it still resonates within me. I hope you enjoy it!

True love --- love in it's purest sense --- is not to be situationally subjective. It is to stand independently of both time and circumstance. This is the supposed claim made in marital vows, "To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish,'till death do us part"... However, I think Shakespeare sums it up much better in his 116th sonnet, "...Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds..."{thank you Bill for being so direct --- PS everyone should read this sonnet in it's entirety --- it's fabulous!}

However, in such a fickle generation, I often wonder how it is that I hear this word so frequently tossed about --- "LOVE" --- through repetitive use and hypocritical abuse the word has somehow lost it's potency and become muddled --- "LOVE" --- if i knew nothing of the word, and had to construct a definition for it based off of social observation alone, I would dishearteningly look at this hurting world and have to define it as something like, "--- LOVE --- an unruly sensation; signified by intense and volatile emotion; not responsible for it's action; hedonistic pleasure requiring little to no commitment; subject to shifts in loyalty within friendships and relationships of all kind dependent on convenience,whim, perk, and reward. Love is selfish, hurtful, unforgiving and temporary..."

The truth is, however, that love --- TRUE love --- isn't any of those things. It is intended to HEAL not HARM. "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!" This is what love is... and if this is not the definition of what you mean and intend when using the word "LOVE" then most likely "LOVE" has nothing to do with whatever it is you are feeling.

I am sure that most of you reading this are familiar with the words above, and that a great many of you even "know" that this is what 1 Corinthians 13 says about love, but maybe the problem, as evidenced in our failing social context, is that we need to stop "knowing" it in our minds, and start "knowing" it in our hearts and demonstrating that knowledge through our lives. After all people don't read minds or hearts...they read actions and THEN learn to understand the heart and mind behind them.

The golden rule calls for action in it's command to "DO unto others as you would have them DO unto you (Matt. 7:12)... because you will reap what you sow. (Gal. 6:7)" As Sara Bareilles would say, "You're only gonna get what you give away --- SO GIVE LOVE!", but make sure that love is true, pure, selfless and unalterable. Let that love be sincere, without any form of hypocrisy (Rom.12:9)...

LET ALL YOU DO BE DONE WITH LOVE
LET ALL YOU SAY BE SAID WITH LOVE
LET ALL YOUR THOUGHTS BE THOUGHTS OF LOVE
LET ALL YOU SING BE SONGS OF LOVE
LET ALL YOUR GIFTS BE GIFTS OF LOVE
LET ALL YOUR FIGHTS BE FOUGHT FOR LOVE