What is Love

Through the ages poets and song writers have tried to define love, but among the best description (at least that I can recall at this moment;) are these:

John Keats (adapted by me:)

"(Love) A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep..." 

And William Wadsworth wrote:

"The Soul (of love) that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar" 

Even Christina Perri attempts to describe love when she sings: "I have loved you for a thousand years. I'll love you for a thousand more." But she got something right...probably without understanding it.... LOVE IS ETERNAL! 

While it seems we are just beginning our relationships of love, they began long before we came to this mortal, earthly sphere! And real bonds of friendship and love will not end here! 

Love is Endless and Eternal! 

As a side note: In place of "I have died everyday," Christina's song reads better to the truth of my soul when I replace it with "I have sacrificed everyday waiting (and preparing) for you...." (I add that because I have to make sense of things! And that part hasn't really made much sense to me- till now!:)

TRUE, GODLY LOVE means SACRIFICE! Sacrifice of our will for God's will. Sacrificing our comfort for the comforts of those we love. 

Don't confuse sacrifice with deprivation. God expects us to take care of ourselves and to treat ourselves with love, and He also wants us to be treated with love. But he wants us to do it within his guidelines and commandments. Elder Neal A. Maxwell paints a clear meaning of sacrifice when he wrote: 

So it is that real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed! Such is the “sacrifice unto the Lord … of a broken heart and a contrite spirit,” (D&C 59:8), a prerequisite to taking up the cross, while giving “away all [our] sins” in order to “know God” (Alma 22:18) for the denial of self precedes the full acceptance of Him.

Neal A. Maxwell. (Full talk can be read/listened to here) https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/04/deny-yourselves-of-all-ungodliness?lang=eng  

Today I saw the bishop of my ward stand to speak, and he joined others through the ages in his efforts to describe love, when he spoke of the love he felt in seeing the baby about to become his adopted daughter. He also described one of the reasons for his hesitance in having another child stemming from his concern in not having enough love to give. (And haven't we all felt that in one way or another. I know before I gave birth to each of my children I wondered if I could love the child about to come, or love them like the previous ones! But love has always come to me!) There is always ample love, when it stems from a place of righteousness.

This dear, righteous man described sweet, sacred moments with the adoption of his daughter, where he felt tuggings at his heart strings, and his spirit cried out to have this child join his family on their journey of life because of the stirrings of love he felt for her. 

He loved her beyond what seemed his own capacity. His love was flowing and unrestricted, despite his prior doubts of whether he could love another child, as his others. He felt love. And he knew love- God's love- as he accepted his sacred role of caring and protecting this gift from God. 

God made the difference by not just placing this child in his arms, but also placing her love in his heart long before he met her! Their friendship and love before these early moments of her life formed before this earth, and came "trailing clouds of glory" (Wordsworth)

I was fascintated to listen to him because I am always studying things of God's love, in an effort to make sense of my life. God is continutally teaching me to recognize love- when I feel so inept at my seeemingly feeble attempts to love well.  And, this may sound surprising, but it also seems like God is teaching me that I don't really know what love is! 

But there are times when I feel confident in my ability to love. 

So how could I not know what love is?! 

I don't think God is telling me I don't feel love, or understand it to some degree, but I think he has long wanted me to understand something which I only just figured out! GOD IS LOVE. God is the source of love. God is the author love. All forms of love ebbs and flows through God, by way of Jesus Chist- the mediator between us and our Father in Heaven. I don't completely understand how that works, but I know it does. 

We have the scriptures to teach us of love, but I do not believe that a description of ultimate feelings of love is possible in our limited mortal vocabulary and experience. We are weighed down with clouds of darkness and trial here on earth. Our mortal experience affects every part of our being-especially our mental perspective of recognizing truth and love. 

Here on earth we get bogged down with people treating us meanly or thoughtlessly, or who are difficult to get along with, and we struggle to see the light of God within them because of our pride and/or pain. But, SOMEDAY we will be stripped of sin and weakness and we will see others through the eyes of love--God's pure, perfect love! 

We will no longer be fettered by any degree of darkness, but we will be exposed to 100% light and 100% love, and it will beautifully consume every cell of our being. We will no longer doubt whether we are worthy of being loved by others. We will no longer wonder if we are good enough to be loved by others. 

Conversely, when we experience life without the curtain of our pre-existent memory drawn, we will no longer look at others and intentionally or unintentionally weigh their value based on the things we value (Such as being kind, sweet, generous, talented, or interesting...or a myriad of other factors). In short, we will see others in the light of truth. We will recognize the spirits of others and know just how loved they are, and how loved we are. We will be enveloped in love, that we only have glimpses here with the stains of earth life.

We assign labels of love in all kinds of ways.... from people to food! But one day we will discover true, pure love,! Love that shines into all the dark crevices of our heart and mind. Love that is without limitation and illness. Love filled with hope and light, in a way that we can only dream. Love made of the sweetest essence never clearly imaginable or understood here on earth!

Because of our limitations in understanding love, we must continue to look to Heavenly Father to fill us with more of His love, and to teach us how to become worthy to enter his presence with purity of love- in both heart and mind. As we strive to follow the guidelines for love set forth in 1 Corinthians (as per picture above), we will have treasured and sacred experiences of God's love in our life, such as my bishop had with his daughter. We will experience that love if we are ever reaching for the hand of God.

Love can be sweet and cherished here, as we work at it, but imagine how much more magnified love can become. It fills my soul with wonder and delight to try and consider the potential! It's definately worth giving our life in the pursuit of purity and sacrifice, so that we can experience sacred love now, and an even more incomprensible joy and love later!

I pray you have others around you who help you to feel glimpses of the love of God. I hope that in the depths of your soul you will understand that true, pure love doesn't end, just because circumstances in your life change, or because you change (for better or worse). I hope you know that you are loved, and worthy of being loved. I hope you take HOPE in Christ and through Christ, and feel hope in knowing that you are destined for more than you see of yourself and around yourself. There is no lost cause to Christ. There is HOPE through Christ. Let Him be your hope and balm of solace.  

Christine