To Love Every Day

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. I find it can be a beautiful day in which we express our love to others. Typically, it would be to our significant others but more and more it is incorporating everyone in our lives that we love and care for. It does not matter if you are in a relationship or single, valentine’s day is a time to express your love. But that is just it, it is a single day to express your love to those you know and not to everyone every day.

One of my favorite verses about love are these popular verses:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, 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.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

Now, there have been many times where I have heard people say that you should replace “love” with your name to see if you truly have love in your heart and life. “Amanda is patient, Amanda is kind, Amanda keeps no record of wrongs, etc.” That is all fine and dandy I suppose, but I find when you do this you are just setting yourself up for disappointment. This is because we do not have every aspect of what love is, especially when we get to the part at the end, about never failing. We are not always patient and kind. There are times when we are boastful, proud, envious. We are going to fail. But that does not mean we cannot strive to be this love, to have this kind of love in us. The only name that could accurately replace the word “love” is the name of Jesus.

I saw these verses as being the characteristics of Jesus. It is because He never fails, but I know I do. I always fall short. But Jesus is perfect, and this is a perfect kind of love. This is God’s love. God’s kind of love is directed outwards towards others. God’s kind of love goes against our natural inclinations, which tend to be more selfish. But that is the thing with growing in our walk with Him. We are learning more and more. Though we can never be perfect, we can become more like Christ. The more we become like Christ, the more we can have this kind of love to share. And we will end up sharing this love every single day, with every single person we meet.

Yes, Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. But while you are expressing your love to those you care about, remember to do this every day. Live every day putting others before yourself, even those you may not know. Live every day putting off your natural inclinations of selfishness. Live every day walking close to God, becoming more like Jesus. Live every day showing your love to others. Live every day loving because God is love! I hope you all have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13