What Love Is

by Roland Foster

I am old, now, and wise. Listen to my words, and be blessed. I will tell you what Love is, but first I will tell you what Love is not.

If I am protective of my rights, that is not Love. If I insist on having my own way, there is no Love in that. If I care more for my own convenience or pleasure than for yours, I am far from Loving you.

If I think that I am smarter than you, or nicer looking, or better bred, and therefore I am better than you, then I am to be pitied, because there is no Love in me.

If you have harmed me, either in actuality or in my imagination, and I do not readily forgive, then Love is not present in our relationship.

If I say, "I love you," and I will not lay down my life for you, then I am a liar.

What is Love?

Love is a young boy, straining to carry his crippled younger brother, saying, "He ain't heavy, Father. He's my brother."

Love is a young wife, after working hard all day, hurrying home to fix supper for her husband. Love is a hard-working young husband, hurrying home from his job so he can help fix the supper.

Love is forgiving your wife for finishing one of your best stories, and messing up the punch line. Love is refraining from finishing a story your husband always tells all wrong, even though he always messes up the punch line.

Love is a young father giving up his golf game to take his child to the circus or the zoo. Love is a young mother giving up a favorite TV show on a Tuesday night to go to a PTA meeting.

Love is buying the inexpensive four-door sedan the family needs, rather than the pickup truck or SUV or minivan that one or both of you would really prefer to have.

Love is a mother and father faithfully visiting their dying child in the hospital, though it breaks their hearts.

Love is a woman donating one of her kidneys to save the life of a man of a different race, whom she hardly knows.

Love is every stalwart husband or wife who has nurtured a spouse through the horrible living death that is Alzheimer's.

Love is our Heavenly Father, sending His Son to die a criminal's death on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins, yours and mine. Love is Jesus on that cross, stretching out His arms to say, "This is how much I love you."

Selfishness says, "I will love you for as long as it pleases me to do so. Keep pleasing me, keep making me happy, and you've got it made, at least until I change my mind."

Love is, quite simply, the absolute opposite of selfishness. Love says, "I am for you 100%, and I always will be, no matter what. Now, how can I bless you today?"

A loving marriage is surely the most beautiful and joyful gift that God can give to a man and a woman.