Good day everyone, I pray that our lord and savior has blessed you all. Today, I feel led to write a little article on love and the fact that it s not a feeling but rather a choice that we have to make every day. As many of you know, I recently got married to the love of my life, the woman that our almighty, generous and loving god not only gave me but that he created specially for me. 

As anyone who is married will know and understand, every day in a marriage is filled with situations where you will have to choose to love the one you are with and those choices vary in difficulty. Easy ones like your spouse just made you your favorite meal as a surprise v.s. difficult ones like your spouse just accidentally broke your phone. There are many choices like these each and every day and the correct answer is always to love them. Its choosing to show grace and mercy when it is difficult, its choosing to show appreciation and gratitude when things are easy…its sticking by them when they need you most….its going through each day doing everything you can to let them know they are the only one for you and that you never want to be without them. Love is all of these things but most importantly it is treating them with the same love that Jesus shows you. Be protective (yes ladies, that means you too. Think about it, there are many ways you can protect your man. Protection does not always have to mean physical.) provide for them, care for and about them, sacrifice for them, live for and with them….let the lord lead you in all of these things and you CANNOT go wrong.

Love is a sacrifice. People have the wrong impression about that word, sacrifice. It does not mean that you have to give up your life in terms of death for someone every day, no. what it means in terms of day to day love in a marriage is letting go of things to make your spouse happy and to make them feel valued and appreciated. YES this is meant to be and always should be a TWO WAY street. As stated in 1 corinthians 13: 4-8 “4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends.” This cluster of verses is not saying that any one specific person has to do all of these things but rather everyone who claims christ as their lord and savior and claims to love others. This list shows what actual love looks and acts like. This list shows all of us but especially married men and women exactly what we need to show our spouses each and every day.

Actual love is a CHOICE to do all of these things for those we claim to love even when it’s hard and seems impossible. Love is not an easy choice to Make and it is not one that should be taken lightly. Nor should it be over used and trivialized as modern culture seems to do. Love is an action that we choose to carry out daily. Not something that we feel for someone when they are nice to us or when it suits us. Jesus Christ loved everyone when he was here on earth and he showed it in many ways, constantly. The greatest of these was leaving his heavenly throne to come down to earth and live as a human, grow as a human, feel as a human, suffer as a human and DIE as a human. Why did he die? Because he loved us so much that he could not bear to be without us in eternity. He freely chose to give his earthly life so that we could be with hm in his eternal one. He constantly made the CHOICE to love everyone around him even when he wasn’t loved back, even when he was mocked, spat upon, beaten, tortured, crucified and killed, he still loved EVERYONE.  When you look at the love he showed all of us, you kinda have to ask yourself….am I actually loving someone properly or am I just loving them with the selfish “love” of the world that only loves those who BOTH love and benefit me? It’s easy to love those who make it easy to love them. It’s easy to love those who benefit us and cause very little strife in our lives. But what about the people who do the opposite? What about the people who are a drain on us in every way? What about the people who made our lives difficult? The answer is… Jesus wants us to love them too. “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” As this cluster verse shows us if we don’t have love and put it into everything we do then the things we have done are worth nothing, they are meaningless.

In closing, love is a choice that we have to make every day multiple times a day nearly continuously. To all the single people reading this, if you’ve read this article and you’re saying that you don’t think you can make this kind of commitment….. stay single and don’t look for any sort of romantic relationship. Build your relationship with God first let him work on you. Let him soften your heart. Let him change you before you seek the companionship of someone else. If you can’t make this kind of selfless commitment every single day to one single person then marriage is not for you at this time. 

Heavenly father, I come to you now, asking that you would touch the hearts of all who read this.

I ask that you would have us take an introspective look at ourselves and make an honest assessment of the way we love others.

If we do not love others, the way you want us to I pray that you will change our hearts and minds. I pray that you will lead us to the proper way to love others. I pray that you will teach us to love others with your love, including ourselves.

Father, I ask you to let this article show people what it means to love with the love of God.

I ask you to convict all of the hearts that do not love the way that you want and lead them to change.

In the name of your only begotten son, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I do pray

Amen.