Love Lessons

Love is a confusing thing. How does one know when one is in love? One can be happy in a relationship, be compatible and know that a future would work well, but that isn't love. And if one has never felt love before then how does one know what it is when it comes for the first time? People ask if I've ever loved. My answer is yes, but often with hesitation because I am not sure of the terms I am agreeing to. If love means standing by someone when they do or say dumb things, when their angry, when their childish, and when their wrong...then maybe I have been. If it means adapting my life without complaint to accomodate the relationship. If it means being faithful when the world around puts no value on that word. If it means wishing to hold them in my arms day and night, touch their hand or even look into their eyes. If love is taking the bad with the good but never letting the bad outweigh or outlast the good. If love is full of smiles even when their gone, then I would have to say yes.

What leaves me to question love further is my own attitude during the relationship. Why do I lack a certain passion if I am indeed in love? Why do I react so poorly in certain situations and treat them so unkind? Why am I quick to judge, get moody, or controlling? I don't have the answer to these things. I can only admit that I am human and am inevitably prone to hormones, tempers, and the desire to control my own circumstance. Though I have messed up in the past those experiences taught me to drink red raspberry tea, count to ten, and let go of the reigns. Through retrospect and God's good guidance, I have matured. In the future I desire to nurture his confidence by offering praise, support his passions and creativity by engaging in them myself, honor him by respecting him both in his presence and absence, foster intellectual conversation through discussion, and sustain a spiritual union by asking the Father to be amidst our relationship daily.

Love is learning. I thank God for loving me and teaching me how to cultivate a lasting love here on earth and a love that will last eternity.