This is the same as the note I posted on Facebook, I kind of just had a strange urge to go on a rant about this, actually I have another I will soon be posting but yeah, so here it is.

There are so many things on the Internet, in paintings, in books as to what love is. You get all sorts of different definitions, such as, “love is when guys put on cologne and girls put on perfume and go out and sniff each other.” I apologize to who had this as their msn name; I know it was just to be funny. But love is so much more than a definition could give you, so much more than a movie or book could give you, well… I take that back, any book not the Bible. ☺ Like a Caedmon’s call song, “Love is different than you think.” So I am going to try my best and go through exactly what love is. This does not just apply only to guy-girl situations I must also point out. This is the love we are supposed to love God with, and our neighbors as ourselves, as is found in Mark 12:30-31 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.”
There are many things that love is, one is found in Colossians 3:14 “Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” It’s the perfect bond, it keeps things together, therefore, anything that breaks someone or people apart isn’t love. Love is meant to last, that’s why it is the perfect bond. It’s strong, and it’s real.
The second thing is that love heals it fixes things. Coming out of 1 Peter 4:8 “Above all keep fervent in your love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sin.” It heals the wounds that sin creates. It fixes the chaos our sinful nature creates.
The third thing is that love doesn’t include fear. This comes out of 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” OK, this is a tough one, and so I’ll try to explain it the best I can. When you love, you’re not thinking about yourself so how can you be afraid of anything happening to you. My sister brought up a good question yesterday and asked if love can be afraid for the person it’s for. I think mostly that’s where we trust the Lord, but in any case, I think that would be considered being anxious for the other person, or maybe worried for their welfare. That’s perfectly fine, the problem that comes up is when we start loving conditionally. We say we love them but we hold back for fear of rejection. That is not love, and never will be. Love doesn’t hold back it’s all out. That’s what makes it so amazing. And we’ll get into that quickly.
The fourth body paragraph will be a list of things, and quick explanations. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in righteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all thing. Love never fails;” Love is patient, it can wait for people, it will always choose people over time. Love is kind, now this one most people can understand, love will be nice, it will be caring it treats what its for as special. Love is not jealous, it’s a gift, it wont be jealous of another’s love because it is not thinking about itself, it’s focused on the person, on what God cares about. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, love will not be proud of what it is because humbleness is also a part of it. Pride can ruin even the best of gifts, it’s not thinking about what the person will think of them afterwards, only on doing it’s job. Love does not act unbecomingly, love wont be rude because it’s constantly thinking about other people, you can’t be rude while loving. Love does not seek it’s own, like I said before it’s looking after others with no regard to itself. Love is not provoked; you’re not going to strike back when you aren’t defending yourself. You can’t aggravate love. Love does not take into account a wrong suffered, you aren’t going to start counting everything someone owes you if you’re truly loving them. You don’t tally forgiveness’s, I know, I know, no 489 left. ☺ Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, it’s only goal is on what’s good, not doing wrong to fulfill selfish desires. Love rejoices in truth, it sings when good is done, it’s excited when it finds truth even if it was wrong before. Love bears all things, like I said before it’s the perfect bond. Love believes all things, it won’t give up on what it’s for no matter how hopeless they seem. Love hopes all things, kind of funny I just used this word, love is optimistic on what it’s doing, because it’s not thinking of itself, it’s not afraid of being disappointed. Love endures all things, love never fails, love is the perfect bond, if it’s really truly true love than it won’t fail no matter what! It’s not going to stop because of anything it’s unstoppable!
The last aspect of love is that it’s not from us. Out of 1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And verse 8c “God is love” Our Lord is what love is, look at who our God is and you’ll have a pretty good idea what love looks like. In our lives also though love is given and maintained by God. Romans 5:5 “for the love of God is poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Love is in us, and is grown by God as is found 1 Thessalonians 3:12 “and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all the people, just as we also do for you.” It’s a gift from God, maintained by God, and is the very essence of who God is.
This is what leads to my definition that has changed over the years, so if you have a problem with it please tell me, and I’ll decided whether or not I should revise it. Love is a gift, it’s not thinking about itself, and it can only accomplish good. It’s all from God. Love is a gift from God that is unbreakable and allows us to live without fear, or thought concerning ourselves that we get to give back to Him, or to anyone else. Basically love is something from God that allows us to live selflessly (without self) + allowing us to be kind and caring for others. Love is best put as a man on a cross, Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” I could go on and on about love, or give you the perfect definition, but if you really want to see love, look at Jesus, there you will see the most amazing thing that puts words to shame that try pitifully to describe something so amazing as love. Love is from God, by God, and is God.

Hey guy's been a long time since I've written on this, well I guess not too long, but it's kind of important. I don't have a spiel this time only a few prayer requests. I guess if we're prayer warriors I want an army on my side lol. Most of the requests involve my school life. I want to ask prayer for my 'Dwight Eisenhower report I am presenting Wednesday, and then also my journal blog I am reading to the class. The Dwight Eisenhower presentation will be the weaker one since I am talking about someone else. He did do a lot for Christianity so pray that I'll be strong and not whimp out at the end and water down the message there which isn't as much as I could hope for. My main prayer request is in my english class where I am basically giving my testimony. The teacher told us to write a story about the movie of our past life, or what our future is planned to be, or could be. I am basically as I said before giving my testimony, the class really needs it so I hope it goes well. There are also some pretty strong-willed debaters who might try to argue with me about something I say. So prayer for wisdom, and a quick smart, but soft responses would be appreciated. Another request involves my friend Andy. I don't think he's a Christian and I don't think he knows what he believes. I really want him to come to our yg's guy's night or youth group again, but most of all I want him to meet Jesus! Lastly I'd like prayer for myself that I would stay strong in Christ, and live out His love like He did all the way to calvary. I know that's a lot to ask but it's what I'm trying to do, and I figure God will help me achieve my goal to some extent because He's just that cool!

in Christ,
Eric