Friday, February 05, 2010
LOVE
What is LOVE??
With Valentine's Day coming up, February is usually considered the month of love. When I was a student in college I had to write a paper about "the principle of love" for my ethics class. Now, it looks like a nice bunch of words from some good study and research, focusing a lot on "agape love," though it also covers two other types of love: phileo and eros. However, at that time, I had not personally experienced marital love, or a "mother's love" (except for what I had observed in my own home). And I'm sure I really didn't understand the words very much.
But, I'm still asking myself if I truly understand love - especially agape love. That's sacrificial love - not "self-serving, feel good" love - but acting for the good of another person and not for one's self.
I read a story recently about a young mother and her two children driving down a mountain road one morning. She was on her way to work and to drop her children off at the babysitters on the way. They never arrived at their destinations. After 8 1/2 hours of searching, they were found in their upside down submerged car in a cold mountain stream down the mountain side.
The little girl was dead, the mother had also died, with evidence she had struggled to free herself but was trapped. However, the two-year-old baby boy was still alive - barely! How had he survived? The mother had held him up, in a very painful position for herself, so that his head was above the water in a pocket of air inside the vehicle! She eventually died in that position. She gave her life so that the baby might live! Is that love?? Does it not remind us of Jesus? He gave His life with unbearable suffering so that we might live. That's agape love!
It is said that love is not something you feel, but something you do. Fortunately, many times when we "do" love, God blesses us with a pleasurable feeling too. But often it is just a decision. We are acting for the good of another person, recognizing their worth, and not pleasing ourselves.
Again, (ask yourself) what is LOVE? HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
- Joyce Brotzman
With Valentine's Day coming up, February is usually considered the month of love. When I was a student in college I had to write a paper about "the principle of love" for my ethics class. Now, it looks like a nice bunch of words from some good study and research, focusing a lot on "agape love," though it also covers two other types of love: phileo and eros. However, at that time, I had not personally experienced marital love, or a "mother's love" (except for what I had observed in my own home). And I'm sure I really didn't understand the words very much.
But, I'm still asking myself if I truly understand love - especially agape love. That's sacrificial love - not "self-serving, feel good" love - but acting for the good of another person and not for one's self.
I read a story recently about a young mother and her two children driving down a mountain road one morning. She was on her way to work and to drop her children off at the babysitters on the way. They never arrived at their destinations. After 8 1/2 hours of searching, they were found in their upside down submerged car in a cold mountain stream down the mountain side.
The little girl was dead, the mother had also died, with evidence she had struggled to free herself but was trapped. However, the two-year-old baby boy was still alive - barely! How had he survived? The mother had held him up, in a very painful position for herself, so that his head was above the water in a pocket of air inside the vehicle! She eventually died in that position. She gave her life so that the baby might live! Is that love?? Does it not remind us of Jesus? He gave His life with unbearable suffering so that we might live. That's agape love!
It is said that love is not something you feel, but something you do. Fortunately, many times when we "do" love, God blesses us with a pleasurable feeling too. But often it is just a decision. We are acting for the good of another person, recognizing their worth, and not pleasing ourselves.
Again, (ask yourself) what is LOVE? HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
- Joyce Brotzman
Labels: VALENTINES
¶ 5:26 PM
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..This article done by an amazing scholar with great comparative techniques and insite must continue her amazing writing art. She isd exceptional in her thought delivery thru the vehicle of words..!
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