Love, as Real as it Gets!

02/14/2011

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This was so profound to me that I don't feel the need to add anything to it. 
                                      ♥♥♥ Enjoy! ♥♥♥

1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.

 8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

 11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

 12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

 13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

(1 Corinthians 13, The Message Version)
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The Importance of Relationship

02/14/2011

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Lately, it seems that there’s a growing trend of downward-spiraling relationships. Whether it’s the dead-end relationship that doesn’t grow; you know, the couple that’s been together forever; the woman waiting on a proposal, the guy not quite ready to commit “long-term,” or the men or women who feel that they don’t need anyone (not just a mate, but anyone; they don’t need friends, they don’t need family; they are a one-man army) the face of relationships is not looking good. Relationships at their very essence are losing meaning. They’ve become dispensable. Unimportant. Entrepreneurs sacrifice them for work; women, for money; and men, for sex.

Dating-shows replete with a plethora of women competing to have “real love” have replaced the “chase.” Shows such as "Football Wives," "Basketball Wives" and "Real Housewives of Atlanta"—as entertaining as they may be—have made true friendship, even familial functionality look obsolete. The question is often posed, “Does art imitate life?” or vice versa; as an artist, I believe it’s the former. Readers want grimy, realistic fiction; they are repulsed by fantasy, things that couldn’t/don’t normally happen in real life. What this means is that although these shows are over-the-top, they have become a common reality.

Like most things, I think what relationships need is balance. We have to find common ground between being used and being too closed off; being too giving and operating fearful relationships; independence and co-dependency. I don’t believe in the concept of “needing” someone to have a full life. This stipulation would mean that whenever that person left, so would one’s happiness. I do, however, believe that relationship—healthy relationships, specifically—are important and necessary. The thing we often forsake is the thing we need most. Life, in its true essence, is relational. Money alone won’t make you happy; fame can be lonely, but good company, good people, a solid team and a firm foundation make the difference.

The better alternative than cutting people out of your life, or being so desperate not to be alone that you accept anyone and anything is to find and cherish the people in your life who are genuinely good to you, with whom you grow and become a better person.

Don’t give up on relationships, just change the way you do them…

7 Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:

8 There was a man all alone;
   he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
   yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
   “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
   a miserable business!

9 Two are better than one,
   because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
   one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
   and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
   But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
   two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

(Ecc: 4: 7-12 NIV)

Live. Love. Laugh!

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