This Is What Living A Life Of Love Really Is

Love isn’t just the days where you cheer from the sidelines as you witness the love of your life succeed in what they do;

And love isn’t just the days where you hug your friends in a warm embrace in comfort.

Love,

Is a process.

Love isn’t necessarily obvious,

The subtle “take care of yourself” and “text me when you reach home” texts;

The smile and often lack of words when we see the person we care about;

Love isn’t necessarily something absolutely phenomenal that it changes the course of your entire being,

Just the little changes of how you want to strive harder to be even better;

Or allowing yourself to be vulnerable (even when it looks ugly).

Real love is raw,

It is messy, beautiful, and genuine;

You don’t need big swooping gestures to classify the tone of a relationship,

And you don’t need society to define what topics are appropriate to talk about and at which month should steps forward in a relationship be taken.

Real love is not always pretty,

It is not always about the butterflies in our stomachs, the nerves, or our hearts beating out of our chest;

It is the tears when everything gets too much, the rants when the stress gets to you, and the little quirks which you may think annoying of yourself.

Real love is trust,

Not a trust that is blindly accepting of whatever comes your way;

But a trust in the person, the process, and in the foundation that substantiates the relationship.

Real love places God at the center of it all,

That even in times of adversity, or when love does start to fade;

He is the foundation that will never shake, shatter, or bruise;

And in Him, the relationship stands upright.

Real love is hope,

It’s trusting someone all over again, allowing yourself to feel once more;

It is allowing the walls you’ve proudly built over the years to protect yourself, to slowly fall away.

Real love is not possession,

It isn’t jealousy and wanting dominion over another;

It isn’t the crazy, wild, exhilarating need for pleasure.

Real love is support,

Support for another’s success, and uplifting them;

Support for your loved ones as they pursue their own endeavours.

Real love is commitment,

It does not comprise of what you feel in that moment, or showering your significant other with nicknames and moments;

It requires time, effort, communication, and sacrifice.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 quotes: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, 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.

Love plays a part in everything that we do, we are, and we see;

And I hope that one day,

All of us would feel what living a life filled with love, and of love, truly is.