Day Five - Your Definition of LOVE

LOVE

A simple four letter word, yet incredibly complex.

Now what the heck am I suppose to write about this?

My definition of LOVE.

I have no idea. A plethora of things go through my mind.

You know me. I'll go look up a word with the quickness. This helps me narrow my thoughts down a bit.

And I'm listing the definitions of love here. These were obtained from dictionary.com

The ones that totally describe what I think are highlighted in green:

1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
3. sexual passion or desire.
4. a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.
5. (used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie, love?
6. a love affair; an intensely amorous incident; amour.
7. sexual intercourse; copulation.
8. ( initial capital letter ) a personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid.
9. affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one's neighbor.
10. strong predilection, enthusiasm, or liking for anything: her love of books.
11. the object or thing so liked: The theater was her great love.
12. the benevolent affection of god for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.
13. Chiefly Tennis . a score of zero; nothing.
14. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter L.

Those are all great definitions.

But the one that stands out the most is love being defined as the affectionate concern for the well-being of others.

That's a great, earnest sincere definition.

Because to me, it denotes action.

I do like definition #12- the benevolent affection of God for his creatures and us for God.

That right there is love at it's best, very much reciprocal in nature.

Then we get over into what I've been thinking about for awhile.

And it's my pastor's fault. He spent about 3 months on this subject matter. (Had me sceaming in my mind, "Got Dog Pastor, could ya move on to something else. DANG!!)

But he said he was staying on it so it could get ingrained in our heads, until we... got it.

And that is... operating in love towards others as being the direct opposite of selfishness.

And you know, that context provides an excellent filter for my decisions, and an examination of my motives and agendas.

(And as much as I write about motives and agendas, you know how I feel about them.)

Questions of late for me have involved...

Am I doing something our of my selfish motives, to obtain a goal that will help me and at the same time hurt another?

Or am I operating in love, i.e., a desire to be a blessing or an encouragement to another, with no gain for myself? Giving of myself in spite of my own desires and fears?

I think those questions are easiest to answered in the area of romantic love. The answers are a little more complex to come by in other areas of my life.

Is it really love? Or is it something else?

I'll stop there...

And let us all ponder.

And continue to wonder.