Created For Love 

Have you ever gone through something in life that made you question whether you could love, or love again? Maybe it was a bad divorce or breakup. Perhaps a sibling or parent hurt you to the point that you became scared to love. We have all encountered some pain in our relationships. I recall, years ago, questioning whether I loved my very own husband. It was a dry spell in my marriage. We had moved to a different city that required us to live far from everyone we knew. We were also first-time parents and my husband was working 80 hours a week. We were facing too many transitions at a time, if you ask me. 

The Bible tells us that God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Through the season of not feeling love for my husband, the Holy Spirit would tell me to love him. When all I wanted was to resent him, I knew love was the solution to the problem. Loving him did not mean pretending to have romantic emotions. It meant to have actions of love toward him, such as saying good morning or asking him how his day went at work. It meant being patient with how I was feeling and reconnecting with him by considering his feelings. Love is choosing actions of kindness, patience, and selflessness. 

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. But the second greatest, said Jesus, is to love your neighbor as yourself. Love has the power to transform. It heals our hearts and allows us to forgive others when they have hurt us. One of my favorite chapters in the whole of Scripture is found in 1st Corinthians 13. Paul says that we gain nothing without love. It does not matter how much knowledge you have or money you give, if you do not have love, you are nothing but noise. 

God’s complete plan was orchestrated and strategized perfectly so that we could embody His love on earth. He poured love into your heart; through the Holy Spirit, you are able to manifest it to others. But even when we choose to love, we will go through pain sometimes. Regardless of what you have experienced, or will experience, understand that you were created by and for love. Love is the answer.