I previously saved the “Love Is” cartoons from the Dallas Morning News which always featured a couple drawn in a precious moments style and a cute saying, like, “love is always kissing her goodnight.” One very aptly read “Love is letting her warm her feet!” This one makes me laugh because my husband HATES cold things touching his skin and he’s always incredibly warm, my feet….not so much…..and I KNOW it’s an act of true love when he sticks his legs up to the bottom of my feet and let’s me warm them! There are a million other things that love is and a million and one that the world will tell you it is.

My vote is to always look to the word of God to discern what things are because He’s the reason it exists anyway! 1 John 4:8, NIV: Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. Jesus tells us the greatest command is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart soul and mind, and the second greatest is like it, to love our neighbors as ourself in Matthew 22:37-39. He wasn’t talking about the house next to you, He was talking about everyone you see. Every person you come into contact with is your neighbor. We could go deeper into that, but let’s follow the “love trail” for today. There’s an entire chapter in 1 Corinthians dedicated to love!

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. 6Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.

11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. 12Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians literally the whole chapter 13

Did you catch that? Bc it was a lot! Let’s look at an excerpt.

Not only is God all of those things because he is love, as we follow Him and demonstrate His love to others as He has asked us to do this should characterize how we love others.

In youth we had a sign that we would hold across our chests with our hands when we needed to encourage someone to remember how to be loving which consisted of a 1 and a 3 to remind ourselves of this chapter. We also liked to do “Live it outs,” which were practical ways that we would apply Scriptural knowledge and live it out in our daily lives. I mentioned a personal example of Shaun and my cold feet! There are so many others.

Sometimes loving others makes us nervous, AWKWARD, vulnerable, and look weird…ok a lot of times it can do that. It can be not coming back with that zinger while verbally sparring with someone that is sure to win you popularity points with the class or crowd and get a good laugh but humiliate the other person. Love may look like sitting beside a friend who’s lost a loved one and not saying a word just being present so they know they aren’t alone because nothing you can say would make a difference in that moment anyway. Love may look like a text to say you were thinking about them. It may look like showing up with dinner for a family after they’ve received rough news or been through something or have been sick. It may look like a shift at the hospital with a friend who’s fighting for their life or healing from an injury or surgery, it may look like walking in and doing the dishes or laundry for a friend after the loss of a loved one or even when they have children and just need a break. It may look like walking in and holding the baby for a friend so she can shower or nap for a bit. It may look like an invitation to literally anything. It sounds a whole lot like doing life together, even when it’s awkward and you don’t know what to say! It’s certainly always sharing the gospel because that is the greatest demonstration of love ever and it shows you care about them spiritually, not just physically and if you’ve ever done that it can be real awkward. Sometimes love is speaking the truth IN LOVE saying the hard things in the softest of ways. Love only looks like things that glorify God the Father because He is love. Let’s untether from our worldly, hallmark, and other awful movie depictions of love and tether ourselves to the Father who will show us how we can love each other sacrificially in Him and by His power!