Think of some things that make you smile. Coming home to your house after it’s been cleaned or singing a favorite song in the car with your best friend, the possibilities are endless. Each are very different, but all have something in common. They are all forms of love.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary “love is a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person.” I agree with this statement, but I think that this feeling should come naturally and can’t be forced.

Love is not an item, it can’t be won over with earthly things. This type of action usually happens with couples who have had a child then separate. At first it may work, but over time gifts get old when they mature and see that the gesture isn’t sincere, only temporary.

How do you know it’s love? Some say it’s at first sight, like a mother meeting that tiny human she had in her belly for 9 months. That built up bond, when he/she starts to kick and you read stories and talk with your baby then finally getting to see your little miracle. There are actually quite a few people who say that it was the first time they saw their husband, wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend and they knew that was their forever.

1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “God is love and has demonstrated that love in everything he does. Paul compares faith, hope and love, and concludes that “the greatest of these is love.” Throughout the bible, love is talked about in many different ways. This one stuck out to me though just because Paul is talking about three equally important things at once yet out of the three he chose love. Some would agree but in the society we live in today I see a variety of people saying that they not necessarily don’t have love but they don’t want love like the affectionate type or they feel one of the other three things is more important before love. Just like devoting your love for the Lord you have to let your spouse figure out every soft spot on you.

Some say before you can be loved you have to love yourself. I am a firm believer in this just because it’s hard to be around someone who doesn’t see the same qualities that you see in them. It’s like telling someone a stop sign is red and arguing that it may be a different color. Which on both parties it can become stressful and slightly lost cause. As the friend or significant other you want to be there for that person who doesn’t understand or maybe is just a feeling they want to have but is almost impossible for the both of you to feel loved.

Love does exist. It may not be for the type of love you see in a movie or read in a romance novel in your spare time. I like to think of more family oriented things. Being an Aunt I have gotten to do tons of things with my niece and nephew. For instance, a few years ago when Brayden was about two years old, I took him on what we like to say is Auntie and Brayden day. This just means I steal him out of daycare for the day and we do whatever he wanted to do. On that specific day he chose to go to the Minnesota State Zoo. We packed up the car and headed down to Apple Valley, MN. We saw all of our favorite animals that day, mine is a koala and Brayden’s is giraffe.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary states the feeling of “unloved as to stop being loved.” This feeling occurs when expectations aren’t met. This happens often when someone commits to an obligation then backs out at the last minute! It makes the person you have just let down feel unappreciated, since you let that happen that same person may despise you from now on. Feeling unloved brings out the worst in all of us. When this feeling is present you may become emotional. You will go through a whirlpool of happiness and sadness.

Even after you have gone through many stages of love there will always be another type that you have yet to discover.

Work Cited
McQuay, Earl P. Bible Study Tools: A Recommended Bibliography for Students of Scripture. Columbia, SC: Columbia Bible College, 1985. Print.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2004. Print.