The Real Definition of Love

How would you define love? You can leave your thoughts in the comments below, but compare your definition with the one I'm about to give you.

Love is patient and kind. Love isn't jealous. It doesn't brag. It isn't proud. Love doesn't dishonour others. Love isn't selfish or easily angered. Love doesn't keep a record of past wrongs. These are the qualities of a loving person.

True love isn't sexual desire for a person, emotional attachment or physical attraction. Love can feel good, but love can also feel lousy. When you work hard, as a mother works hard to take care of her small children dealing with runny noses, diapers and sibling rivalries, that's an act of love. When you sacrifice for someone else, like a father may sacrifice his life to protect his family, that's an act of love. When you see a loved one (family or friend) practising a damaging behaviour, such as drinking to excess, and you share your concern in a kind and gentle way with them, that's an act of love. Even though it doesn't feel good to have that conversation.

Love is seen through actions, and many loving actions don't feel good. Yet people are fooled, time and time again, confusing emotion and feeling with love.

Most dating or married couples start their relationships with budding emotions and feelings. They think this means the two of them love eac other, but that isn't really love. Society fooled me, and it probably fooled you too. Mostly through music and television, were tricked into believing that love is excitement and romance. If it was real love, why are relationships between families and spouses falling apart so rapidly in our society and throughout the world? Why did our grandparents relationships stay together and ours don't? Why is it that feelings that we once had for a person fade away over time? The emotions and feelings aren't bad, but without understanding how to properly love the other person, they are misused and become like a drug. The relationship feels good for a while, then the drug wears off, the hangover begins, and the relationship breaks up. We must learn to how properly love one another to know how to maintain those right emotions.

Love is a way of life that GIVES, love is practised through actions – IT IS NOT SEEN THROUGH EMOTIONS OR FEELINGS. What can you look for to see if love is being practised?

Love is giving respect to parents and those in authority. Even if they're wrong sometimes. Love is giving kindness, mercy, and forgiveness to all people, even those with whom we do not agree, and even those who may not be kind to us. Love is being faithful, loyal to our wife or husband. Love is not stealing from our boss, school, or anyone else. Love is being honest, even if lying might get us ahead in the short term. Love is being happy, grateful, and thankful for what we do have, not living a life obsessed with materialism and always wanting what we don't have.

Loving others in this way can be difficult, it can make us vulnerable as some may not choose to treat us the same way.

Do you agree with our definition of love? I agreed with it years ago when I found it in a book. If you agree check the links in the description below to find out where this definition comes from.