"Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses." -Ann Landers.
Last week, I was walking on campus when a bunch of my friends out of nowhere started screaming my name. Then two of them shouted, "I love you." I stopped walking turned around and screamed, "I love you, too." At that moment, I felt loved. I wanted to cry because they had no idea how much those three words meant to me. Before leaving my room that day, I felt really overwhelmed and stressed out. I had so much work to do, and I felt really down and broken. In other words, I need to hear those words. Those three words were so reassuring, and they made my day better.
But seriously, what is love?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "Love is a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties maternal, an attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers, affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests."
Love comes in different dimensions. Throughout my life, I have met and talked to a lot of people, each and every one of them having their different view on what love is, how it should be shown and how to give love. It baffles me, how each one of us loves differently. Our idea of what love is, being shaped by the different experiences we have encountered, different cultures, traditions, religion, doctrines and so much more.
As a Christian, I believe in the Bible and here is what God has to say about love:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" -John 3:16.
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God" -John 4:7.
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" -Corinthians 13:4-6.
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love" -John 4:18.
"Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law" -Romans 13:10.
All these verses help me to shape the idea of what love is. It tells me that I cannot be jealous of my friend and still say I love them or go about gossiping and backbiting. The Bible tells me that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Because of that, if I love someone, I should be able to set aside everything and just love. No matter what you have been through, God loves you and cares so much about you. Heck, the Bible has commanded me to love therefore, I love you!
