Well, according to Tina Turner it’s a ‘sweet old fashioned notion’. But love is so much more than that. Love is timeless. It never goes out of style. In light of February being the month of “love”, its only right that this month we talk about LOVE! What pops into your mind when you think about love? Your spouse? Your parents? Your friends? That failed relationship that left you thinking you would never love again? Does God immediately pop into your head?
Most people are always so focused on receiving love, they chase after it, demand it and sometimes would do anything for it, but I wonder how many lives would be changed if instead of focusing on receiving love, we focused on giving love.
When we truly love one another, we give each other permission to be ourselves, to be vulnerable, to admit our faults and shortcomings without regard of what someone may think, and we are able to do this because perfect love cast out fear! When we truly love someone and we are loved, we feel like we can conquer anything, and even if we make a mistake we know that we are loved beyond our faults and because of that we have no fear with trying again.
We underestimate the power of love, and how the love that has been given to us should be extended to those around us. If you ever wanted to test how much love resides inside of you, take a look at how you treat those around you. In the book of Proverbs chapter 12 it reads:
Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all wrongs.
Some might read this and roll their eyes because what they’ve seen of love has not been beautiful, it has not been uplifting, it has not given them courage. But It’s important that we don’t shun the notion of love, or never extend love to others, especially if you’re a person of faith. John 15:12 puts its quite simply
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
No metaphor, no parable, this is a straightforward command that because He loves us and has shown us how to love, we are to do the same.
Tina Turner kept asking over and over what love had to do with it. And the answer is, it has to do with EVERYTHING! We were made to love and to be loved.
Sincerely,
Kiara Janai