Living Love

When I get down to the core of who I want to be, I want to personify love. I want people to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I truly love God, and that I truly love people. 

I used to have a distorted view of what love really is. I'm young, but when I was younger, love was easy. Love was common. Love was just something you said. Love could change. Love might not last. Love was just like any other emotion. 

Now that I'm older, I'm beginning to understand what love is. With that new understanding comes a new way that I approach God and those around me.

Sometimes I feel a certain way but can't express it. I sometimes read the Scriptures, and I think to myself, “That is exactly how I feel.” Or I think, “That is exactly what I want to say.” Sometimes it's like the words I read are my own words. Or even more commonly, the words I read are exactly what I need to hear. 

This verse continues to change me every time I read it. It is a common passage, 1 Corinthians 13. I read these words as if they are my own, because they are my own. I hope you will read them in the same way. It is my prayer that we can all internalize this message, and it is my prayer that these will be your words too.  

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. 

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

Love never gives up. 

Love cares more for others than for self. 

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

Love is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, and 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. 

When 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 put childish ways behind me. And now these three remain...

Faith, hope, and love. 

But the greatest of these...is love.”