Love is...

What is love?

We write countless songs about it.

What is love?

We say we love our hobbies...fishing, reading, playing a sport, singing.

What is love?

We say we love our friends and families.

What is love?

I thought I knew what love was. I thought I did a pretty good job of loving others. In my mission statement, I said that I am created to love God and to love others. But what does that really mean? What does that look like in every day life?

Nothing has taught me more about love than teaching. When I first started the education program in college, I was required to write a "Why I Want To Teach" paper. In that paper I said that I wanted to teach because I love God, and therefore I want to express that love to others - especially kids.

I loved children because I thought they were lovable.

It didn't take long in my first year of teaching to realize a serious flaw in my thinking. Children are NOT lovable. Oh, if you spend an hour or two with them, they are cute and funny, and you think they are lovable. But spend an extended amount of time with them and you will find something totally different. They try your patience. They are self-centered. They are rude. They are ungrateful. They argue. They are disobedient, lazy, and the list goes on.

And while I tried my hardest to love these little obnoxious, squirrelly kids, I just couldn't do it. They weren't lovable.

But I've come to realize something that I've always known...yet never really let sink in to my heart. NOBODY is lovable. Not in the terms of behaving in a way that deserves love. We ALL are self-centered, rude, ungrateful, argumentative, lazy, etc.

But God loves us. Even though we are unlovable. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrated his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Wow. We are completely undeserving of God's love, but he pours it out on us anyway. Even to the point of dying for us.

As I started this school year, God put 1 Corinthians 13 on my heart. "Love is patient. Love is kind." Love isn't meant to be used like money - lavished on those we like and withheld from those we don't. It is to be given freely to all. Especially the ones who try your patience. Especially to the ones it is difficult to be kind to. I want to speak love to everyone - not only through my words, but also through my actions. I want to love others the way God loves me - not because I am lovable, but because love is meant to be given to all.

When you encounter people this year, don't expect them to be lovable - because they're not. But make a decision to love them, regardless of how they act or make you feel. Remember what Jesus did for you. Memorize 1 Corinthians 13 and ask God to make you into a person who doesn't withhold love from anyone, but gives freely to all.