Love, sweet love...

Luv, LOVE, LiKe, In Love, WT?

It occurs to me that there are many different understandings of the word Love. Although words may seem to provide the method of communicating thoughts, as cultures and languages progress, words actually change their meaning to represent what is thought about them. It's a symbiotic cycle. Each langauge has several words to describe the English word "Love". Heck, even English has different ways to use the one word "Love"

Let's talk about one facet of Love, specifically the Romantic/Dating/Courting/Marriage Love. In English, we actually use three different ways to talk about this type of Love. Oh, I'm sure that if you're reading this far, you have probably managed to find yourself in a romantic-type relationship and spent several hours of your life (or man-days or even man-years) simply trying to figure out "Do I LOVE <this person>? Am I IN LOVE WITH <this person>? Do I LIKE <this person>? Am I FOND of this person?" If none of the above apply, what the hack are you doing with the person? If it's for the sex, you might as well hire a hooker, it'd be better for both of you since you'd at least understand what you both wanted. (no, I'm not encouraging this route. I happen to take issue with sex outside of marriage. First off, God has a problem with it. Secondly, it causes immense amounts of pain.)

But what the hack are we really talking about? LOVE? IN LOVE? LIKE? (yes, Fond would make 4 ways of discussing it, but it doesn't count. It's more of a concept than a way we usually talk about Love).

The Christian faith seems to have the most comprehensive description of Love I've found. But I can sum it all up in one word: Commitment. Love is a commitment. It is commitment to the benefit of another person. Anyone who tries to talk about feelings or other mumbo-jumbo is fully of crap. Love is patient. Love is Kind. It's being humble, not full of yourself. There is a good list of what Love is all about in the Bible, starting at 1 Corinthians 13:4. Look it up. I particularly like "Love Always Perseveres."

Like, and fondness are all about the emotional (and physical) enjoyments we're graced with. Note: as with "happiness", these come and go.

Oh, and "in-love" is nothing more than a heated, super-powered version of Like.

More depth as Love plays into Marriage...

The love commitment is 100% your responsibility. When you say "I do", you are committing to a commitment with God. It may seem like a 1 way street, and indeed it is. You are responsible for your 100% of your commitment. It does not depend on your spouse's commitment or anything else. Hopefully you have selected a person who also understands this and will continue to recommit to his/her 100% commitment to love you. That is also between them and the creator, not between you and the person. To believe otherwise is to allow yourself to slip in your commitment when s/he does...

If all this doesn't encourage you to treat your spouse with kindness, think of this. Your commitment to God to love this person is for your entire life. Your actions will effect how nice it is to live those days.

Marriage is forever. Approach it that way, both of you. Wisdom and intelligent boundaries are good and tending to needs of both of you is important. Fully invest yourself into this friendship. There is no other relationship of this kind.

When you break your commitment, there is only one thing to do. Apologize and recommit. Constantly

For those of you who think this is a radical (or stodgy) view, try this one for size: Dating is for the birds. It's nothing more than tricking yourself and others. A confusion of intent. Courtship is the way to go. Don't be an Ordinary Girl

Here's another one. I believe in love at first sight... I don't think it's necessarily wise, but it can happen. More frequent is lust at first sight. But hey, if you learn what the Love commitment is all about, thats possible at the same time. Who knows? But that doesn't negate the fact that it's not necessarily wise.