Sharing Love

[caitlincares]

When the system was down earlier today I found some great inspirational articles.

I will share these with you all.
The first I have had for a long time - since before some of y'alls were born.


Love is friendship that has caught fire.
It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.
It is loyalty through good times and bad.
It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.

Love is content with the present;
It hopes for the future and it doesn’t brood over the past.
It’s the day-in-and-out disappointments, big victories and common goals.

If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack.
If you don’t have it, no matter what else there is, it’s not enough.

- Ann Landers in Reader’s Digest (March 1983)

 

[caitlincares]

A good relationship is not a game that we play or an ego trip we take. It is about love and two people. Loving someone can give us the greatest joy we can ever know but it can also hurt us more that we can ever believe. If we love someone we should be ready to experience not only happiness but heartache as well. That's the reward and risk that it takes. Unless we are willing to experience it, we will never really know what it's like to love and be loved.

Sharing love is probably the most valuable and meaningful experience a person can ever have. And there is a difference between being in love with someone and loving someone. It's the difference between a love that's fickle, wild and short-lived and a love that's tender, passionate and lasting. The first is easy. The second, the one that really matters to us all, takes work ---- because it's about keeping the relationship.

Loving someone takes efforts. We have to be able to communicate with each other. Nobody can read anyone else's mind. We always presume that our partner knows what we think and feel. Maybe in time we might be able to predict or sense each other's thoughts but it's never perfect and it takes time to develop.

Getting the chance to love and be loved by someone is a blessing. Respect him/her for who he/she is, and not what you want him/her to be No one is perfect. It's true love that closes the gap of imperfectness to form a smooth surface of acceptance for each other. True love sees and accepts a person for who he/she is. It is also true love that makes a person change for the better.

Although the power of true love is undeniable, a relationship needs commitment too. What is love without commitment from each other anyway? It's like principles and values. Everyone has them but they only mean as much as we are willing to stand for them. The same goes for our commitments to relationships and to the person we love.

"Love is like an antique vase. It's hard to find, hard to get, yet easy to break."

Everyday, everywhere...people fall in love. But just how many of these relationships are self-sacrificing love, and not just relationships which are formed only for the intense feeling of falling in love? I know hundreds of friends who say the magical words "I love you"...but more often that not, the truth is just --- I am IN love with you. There is a difference between being in love with someone and loving someone.

If a person says he/she is in love with you, he/she means that he/she likes you for who you are now and he/she fell in love with you because of the present you. This kind of love is temporary and will only lasts as long as the fairytale lasts. When fairy godmother comes in at night to whirl us back in reality, we see the heartache of such a relationship.

But if a person says he/she loves you, he/she means that he/she loves you unconditionally for who you are now, who you were you in the past and who you might be in the future. When he/she says he/she loves you and really means it, you have to ask yourself if you love him/her too or if you are only in love with the idea of being in love. It is very hard to see the difference through logical thinking.

May you be blessed on your soul-mate searching journey.


Author Unknown

 

[caitlincares]

As Christians we are called to love each other.
There are many types of loves.
The LOVE of friends is WONDERFUL.

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Greeks have three words for love:[/font]​

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]AGAPE [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Serving love - [/font][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]unconditional love, keeps going,
full of grace, spontaneous, no cause (just because)

[/font][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PHILIA [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Friendship love - [/font][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]between friends, giving and receiving,
mutual interests and desire to connect

[/font][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]EROS [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Passionate love - [/font][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]possessive, sexual
appropriate for married couples
[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We should all have AGAPE love for the world at large.​

We have PHILIA for our circle of friends which may include family and church relations.​

EROS is saved for married partners.​

[/font]​

 

[JPPT1974]

To be honest I don't know why the word agape isn't used like the old times of the bible. I wished that it was used more often. Because I would use it if I could get away with it. But also you can show love as a friend just because people of are the opposite sex. And also only to be nice and not only be sexually involve.

 

[2Timothy2]

I agree. I wish English differentiated between the various levels of love. And I wish we had another word for "in love" which is just emotion whereas real love is much more.

Loving someone takes efforts. We have to be able to communicate with each other. Nobody can read anyone else's mind. We always presume that our partner knows what we think and feel. Maybe in time we might be able to predict or sense each other's thoughts but it's never perfect and it takes time to develop.

Everyday, everywhere...people fall in love. But just how many of these relationships are self-sacrificing love, and not just relationships which are formed only for the intense feeling of falling in love?

 

[desi]

Love is serving another in their best interest, at times despite ours.