Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The True Expression of Love...

I asked a while back what was the truest expression of love. Fictions and stories have always failed to teach me. They make me think, and ponder scenarios beyond my experience.

Love is a feeling that we experience in so many different ways towards various people. Love is the ultimate expression of our divinity. It is an emotion that holds the power to heal and strengthen the physical and emotional body.

I often experience the overwhelming fullness of love for those that I care deeply about. Once we allow our hearts to open and reveal the full expression of love it comes with great risk. We have hopes and expectations. We want it to be reciprocated and valued. When we choose to risk our hearts, we take a chance of being hurt or rejected.
But Love has the power to heal, and, transform. Every expression of love carries in it the seeds of possibilities. When we nurture and honor love, it has the ability to lift us up and give us hope, tenderness and affection. Without love we miss out on so many blissful moments in life.

Gratification is doing whatever the feelings of love motivates you to do in a moment. This promises the most instant satisfaction. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve felt like hugging someone and decided I couldn’t or shouldn’t.

Commitment is, in this case, synonymous with faithfulness and loyalty. True love inspires commitment. There’s no greater gift to offer a person than your eternal devotion.

Sacrifice. Obviously there are different levels of sacrifice. A bunch of little things all added together are the kind of sacrifice I mean. There isn’t an opportunity for each of us to die for another to demonstrate our love. We talk about being a living sacrifice, which is totally giving one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength to the purposes, comfort and good of another.

Time is your most precious gift because you only have a limited amount of it. You can make more money but you can’t make more time. When you give someone more time you are giving out a portion of your life that you will never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.

It is not enough just to say relationships are important; we must prove it by investing time in them. Words alone are worthless. Relationships take time and effort, and the best way to spell love is “T-I-M-E”.

The essence of love is not what we think or do or provide to others, but how much we give ourselves. Men in particular, often don’t understand this. Yes, I am brave enough to accept that they don't. What we should understand is, that they want us in a relationship. Our eyes, ears, our attention, our presence and our focus. In essence they want your time. Nothing can substitute that.

There is a very famous saying, "You can give without loving but you can’t love without giving". Love to me means giving, yielding my preferences, comfort, goals, security, energy or time for the benefit of someone who I love more than life.

Relationship must have priority in your life above everything else because relationships are all what life is all about. Incidentally many underrate relationships when you hear them talking about finding time for our people, giving the impression that relationship are just a part of our lives along with many other tasks.
But relationships are what life is all about. Indeed, four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship with people.

Busyness is the greatest enemy of relationships. Relationships, not achievements or acquisition of things are what matters most in life. We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bills and accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point of life. They are not. The point of life is learning to love. Life minus love is zero because the scriptures tell us that love is eternal; lasting forever.

Another thing is that love leaves a legacy. It is not your wealth or accomplishments, but how you treated other people is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth.

For me Love is the secret of lasting heritage.