Real Hope: Definition of LoveSample

Love In Action

On Valentine’s Day 2003, Luke proposed, and I said ‘yes’. Thus began our journey towards being husband and wife. Of course, first comes the wedding and the (sometimes dreaded) wedding vows. As many couples do, we decided to write our own. It seemed simple enough. I was making a promise to love Luke. The more I thought about it, though, the harder it became to create a promise of what love would look like in our life in a way that I felt I could honestly uphold, even in moments when the ‘in love’ feelings felt faded, and the umpteenth piece of clothing left on the floor beside the clothes basket hit my final nerve. The Bible gave some much-needed help – the fruit of the Spirit. To me, these verses have always looked like love in action. It could almost be written more as a list, ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love: (and love is) joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’.

My vows were made to love Luke in a way that looked like experiencing joy together, building a peace-filled home, being patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled in temperament. This was, for me, the ultimate loophole. I could live these vows, so long as God was at work in my life. The vows finished by stating that these promises were made, ‘motivated by love, enacted by choice and empowered by the Holy Spirit’. Though these vows were made to Luke, they are equally valid in every connection in our life. To say we love but to be missing any one of these elements feels incomplete and half-hearted. Today, how can you grow and further allow His Spirit to bear the fruit in your life that enables you to always, in all circumstances, love well?

Written by SUSIE HOLT