LOVE permeates the month of February. Without knowing the history of designating February 14 as Valentine’s Day, it was a great choice of timing. February can be the dreariest, most dismal month of the year without this heart-y celebration. We are all ready for winter and cold to subside.
We look for the perfect card, gift, and way to spend the evening to show our love to those we love the most. What is the perfect way to demonstrate my love to my husband/wife?
While love is all around, another question comes up - how do we love well?
Is loving well expressed through what we say? Or is it through what we do? Or maybe in how we act or our attitude? Or do we even know how to love well?
I have often heard people in a marriage crisis say “He/she doesn’t even know how to love or be loved.”
I believe that a human does not have the capacity to really “love well” on his own. To “love well” a person would love unconditionally and without end. One would love in a way that the other person would be able to recognize and receive the love.
LOVE is the subject written about the most in the Bible. All that God does to express Himself to His children is wrapped in the word LOVE.
“We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.” (1 John 4:16)
God’s love for us is unquestionable. To “love well” we must have the love of God in us, which He has promised to do for His children. “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5)
Only because of His love for us and in us can we truly love others. “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19.
When we love well, we do not try to control others responses with our anger causing them to fear us. That method is not from God. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18)
“Loving well” is loving the same way God loves. He loves - regardless of the response of the other person.
We understand this kind of love when we become a parent, even though our love for our children is imperfect. Allowing God to love us and through us, we can love our others that way. Our greatest joy can come when we love as God loves us.
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
