My definition of 'Love'

What is love?  We hear or read that "Love is a many-splendored thing" and "Love makes the world go round".  There are lots of types of love such as love for family and friends, love for neighbours, love for loved ones, even love for those you just can't bring yourself to love, romantic love and unconditional love such as the agape love that God has for us.

Love is a choice.  I strongly believe that.  I do believe that people can fall 'in love' but it is just as easy to fall 'out of love'.  It's easy to love when things are going well and you are feeling great.  Love comes easily in the early stages of a romantic relationship when you and your loved one are on your 'best behaviour' so to speak. Love is easy when everything seems to be going your way and you feel on top of the world. I believe that love shows its true colours when we have been hurt by the actions or words of others.  When you choose to love when you feel that you have no love left in you to give, when you choose to love when you are provoked and when you choose to love again after your trust has been broken and you feel your heart has been trampled into the dust - that is love.  In saying this, I am not suggesting that one should let others take advantage of their love and just accept bad treatment or abuse but that is for another post. 

In John 13:34, Jesus says 'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.'  The fact that Jesus made this a new commandment clearly tells us that love is a choice that we can make and not something that we do automatically.  In saying that, just knowing that love is a choice makes love so powerful that it definitely is a force that can make the world go round.