Love isn’t… Love is…

Ever taken a daisy and pulled off the petals one at a time while saying, “He loves me. He loves me not…”? In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul starts out with two lists. What love isn’t and what love is.

Love isn’t being the most eloquent speaker or having a voice that people enjoy listening to, without love it is noise. There are many people lately, who fall into this. Some yelling at the top of their lungs and when you try to listen to what they are saying you have no rhyme or reason to what they are saying they are like a noisy gong.

Love is patient and kind. The words that come out of someone that is full of love are going to be kind and not putting someone else down. A person that is full of love is willing to wait and give another person the chance to prove themselves and not lecture that person on how to do things.

Love isn’t someone who is extremely intelligent and use it for controlling how others should run their lives. No one likes a control freak who thinks their way is the only way things can be done. People like that try to make their lives matter by telling everyone around them what is wrong with the way they do things or what they should be doing.

Love is going to put what is best for others around them first. It isn’t going to be arrogant or rude because the person full of love will encourage others to do their best in what God has created them to do. The person walking in love understands we are all different and have different ways of doing things, yet get to the same outcome.

Love isn’t demanding, resentful, or irritable. How much have we heard lately that “I did this…”, “This is what must happen because I…”, “I refuse to…” One thing these all have in common is “I”. The focus is on one’s self and what that person did so things should be the way that person wants it to be. Otherwise, they throw a fit, cry and scream acting like al 2-year-old.

Love is going to rejoice in the truth. It will not applaud those that act out stomping their feet like a 2-year-old yelling, “Mine!” The person walking in love knows no matter happens in this world, God is in control and works everything together for the good.

When we practice the advice in 1 Corinthians 13:7, are we able to be the person we should be walking by in love.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.