{to the ends of the world}

Happy Valentine's Day or SAD (Singles Awareness Day) to you, whichever side of the fence you're on. So of course I've been thinking about love recently. And watching Jane Austen movies and romantic comedies, then again I think Pride & Prejudice was the original romantic comedy. But that's a whole other topic. So...what is true love. That term is thrown around without care in my opinion. Most people do not understand what love is, let alone true love. Okay, I know that's harsh, but with today's rampant divorce rate and broken hearts I think I can safely make that assumption. I'm going to start with an example from pop culture. My family likes to watch "Smallville" and the last episode showed a complete upset to the whole Clark & Lana relationship. In a few short words - they can never be together, now that Lana has absorbed a substantial amount of Kryptonite. Then I got to thinking, if what they had was true love why don't they just deal with the fact they will not be able to hug and kiss and instead focus on enjoying each other's company, albeit from across the room. Have we been so conditioned that love is physical contact, not mutual joy in being together? And I realize that the physical is part of married relationships, but that is not the main portion. The other 80% (just throwing out a number) is friendship and companionship. Just the happiness of the being in the same room as your beloved, sharing thoughts and ideas. Am I totally off base? To me true love is being able to follow a man to the ends of the world because you esteem, respect, honor, cherish and love him. Not because he's a great kisser. I acknowledge that I don't fully understand this yet, but what I do know and understand is that Hollywood has deceived us. We no longer understand what true love is, because we have been taught through entertainment that unless it feels good, it isn't love. Forget the real reasons we choose to love people when things get difficult. Now for another example from pop culture. I recently was able to see "Enchanted" and was stunned by the scene in which the couple, who was going through a nasty divorce, was brought to their senses by Amy Adams' character. They called off the divorce saying that they realized you don't give up because of a few hardships. You don't give up the good things because a couple of bad things. I cheered, almost in unbelief, at this championing of love.

We are taught in the Scriptures what true love is. From the first example of God creating a help meet for Adam to the verses in the New Testament telling us that love is patient, love is kind, etc. There's nothing there about the other person being a good kisser or you have fun on dates. Those are not reasons for marrying and if that is to be the foundation of your marriage than you will not be happy. I have been blessed with real life examples of happy, godly marriages. My parents and friends' parents have demonstrated what it is like when you marry the right person for the right reasons. Enough rambling...I pray that everyone that reads this feels the pure love from the only person that can bestow it - God the Creator. He created everything. Us, our feelings and the person that we can't live without here while we remain on this planet.