Love.

 Heavy on my heart:

Love(noun) according to Webster's is a, "An intense feeling of deep affection" or as a verb, "A deep romantic attachment."

Love to God: Agape, "God's love for us-completely sacrificial"

The idea of love has become so corrupted and is continuing to become more corrupted over the generations. 

Today love is a feeling, a 'high' if you will, that we experience when we first become close to someone that we are physically attracted to. It's emotional, irrational and often blind. When in this emotional high it is difficult to see anything but the love we believe we have with that person. Time passes and that high fades and what is left is a dull relationship. We begin to notice each others faults more than anything and we start to wonder how we even 'loved' them in the first place. 

So many marriages happen within this emotion love-high, and within a year or two that high is gone and they don't feel 'the love' anymore, they eventually grow apart, divorce and fall in love again with someone else. 

This cycle is so destructive; leaving scars and ties all over the heart. 

Love is what Jesus gave us; sacrifice. He put everyone else, all of us, above him, even though above is where he rightfully belonged. 

Love is to be selfless. 

To chose to love one another.

Now, I'm not saying that a relationship that experiences a high and is romantic isn't really love, we just need to realize that once that high has faded we need to chose to love-the other person-to keep the rose-colored glasses on.

To chose to meet the others needs ahead of our own.

To chose to be enraptured at the quirks of this person instead of disgusted by their 'faults'

To chose to look beyond imperfection, to find beauty.

To chose to be selfless.

As Jesus was.

Misti Edwards, "Arms Wide Open" sums this up perfectly:

"

I once believed that love was romance, just a chance

I even thought that love was for the lucky and theBeautifulI once believed that love was a momentary bliss

But love is more than this

Then I sat down, a little frustrated and confusedIf all of life comes down to loveThen love has to be more than sentiment

More than selfishness and selfish gain

And then I saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking atMeI saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking at meHe was looking at me, looking at Him, staring throughMeI could not escape those beautiful eyesAnd I began to weep and weepHe had arms wide open, a heart exposedArms wide open; He was bleeding, bleeding

Love's definition, 

love's definition was looking at me

Looking at Him, hanging on a treeI began to weep and weep and weep and weep

This is how I know what love is

"