What is love? Does it really exist? What is it really?
Everyone seems to have their own definition of it. Maybe I have so many questions on it because I have never experienced it. I have never been in love. And maybe that is because I hold such high expectations of it. I want princes on white steeds and rose petals on blankets spread on the grass in the height of summer. I want romance and in all honesty PERFECTION. The dictionary says: love/luv/n. 1. deep affection; fondness 2. sexual passion 3. sexual relations 4. beloved one; sweetheart 6. delight in; admire; greatly cherish 7. being enamored
Are you serious? Admiration! Fondness! That is not at all what love can possibly be. None of those words can possibly describe a lasting relationship of compromise and compassion for eternity. Shouldn't love be more than those words? And if so, where would you learn about it? If love cannot be described using words how can it be described? Should the word love even be in the dictionary? Ok. That was a rediculous question. But it just seems so hard to define and the dictionary does not do it justice. Didn't your mother ever tell you, "If you're not going to speak the truth don't speak at all"?
The definition doesn't say anything about how long it lasts or how often it occurs. Is this what I should be looking for? Admiration and fondness, sexual relations! Is it wrong of me to be looking for something else. Is it unfair of me to be judging it by another standard. A standard in perfect honesty that is intangible. I cannot tell you what the standard is only whether or not you meet it.
Can that be fair? Can it possibly be fair to be judging innocent men by a standard I myself cannot define? I do not know.
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I don't know what dicitonary you used to look up your definition, but I can give you the definition from the one true dictionary on this subject:
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 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. 12 Now we see but a poor 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.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
This definition of Love comes from 1 Corinthians 13 in the Bible and explains the truest most pure form of love. This is the love that has been unadultured by the imperfect nature we posess as humans...the love that God had for us when he sent his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross so that we could be free from sin. That's a big deal and if you want to find true love you have to look there first. I know you are talking about love in relationships but it has to start in your relationship with Christ. After that you will be able to love others in a way that you can look past some minor imperfections and see people for who they are. That doesn't mean that you can't find someone who knows how to love back in the same way because there are a lot of guys who don't know how to respect a girl but for those of us that do, we all make mistakes and there will be some things that won't measure up to expectations. But again, before any of that has a real shot of lasting, you have to develop a relationship with God and realize what it really means to be loved.
Love can be a lot of things, not just sexual. You can't sum it up in a dictionary or a Bible. You know it when you feel it. You can love your country, you can love music, your children, or friends. Like the Beatles said, "All you need is love, love...love is all you need." :)
'...if you don't like your job, you don't strike—you just go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way.'
The feel of the sun on your face when you wake up in the morning....
Giving your pet a kiss.....
Confiding in your best friend, and in turn they confide in you.....
Your mother and father, brothers and sisters.....
The smell of the ocean....
The way your favorite food tastes on the tip of your tongue....
When you are being graced with a smile.....
Sweetheart, there are so many different ways to love. Don't hold such high expectations for the person you want to fall in love with (trust me it's hard not to have those expectations when the media is constantly throwing them in your face) because in reality you'll never meet someone like that. I am so in love with my boyfriend, but we fight all the time, neither one of us is perfect, but we're together because we love each other and part of love is accepting others' imperfections. And always, always remember that it's SO much harder than the movies and romance novels make it out to be, but at the same time it is the most wonderful feeling you will EVER experience. Love is what makes the world go round.