The Right Road

There is a belief that everybody knows how to love. That belief would be false. Everybody knows how to breathe, blink, and chew. God doesn’t tell us what we already know. He tells us what we need to know and learn.

If we’re not learning how to love, and love better, we are making a mess of our relationships, and hurting the people in them – ourselves included. If you are in a place where you don’t want love, can’t give love, can’t find love nowhere, no-how, or don’t know what love is, you are not the only one. People have struggled with loving well since the beginning of time. Learning to love well, though, changes the most bleak situations into blessings. So what is love, anyway?

Love: (1) the energy, fuel or currency one person chooses to give to another person for their benefit, progress, or uplifting, (2) the investment of oneself into another in order to sustain a developing, fruitful relationship. Love is not a feeling. It is sacrificing time and energy for the benefit of others. Because we are imperfect and by nature selfish, we can be engaging in very unloving ways – which again can do long lasting damage all around. The great news, is that there is GOOD NEWS. Every day we are granted the privilege of life, we have a chance to love better. here’s how to start:

• acknowledge where you are with loving God, others, yourself
• ask God to help you love better
• share with a trustworthy friend, spouse or family member, your desire to want to love better and to give you objective feedback on how you’re engaging with others
• if necessary find a trustworthy counselor to help you with any trauma you may have encountered which impacts your ability to love
• make sure you are engaged in a biblically based, healthy church so you can hear from God through the teaching and fellow Christians to help you in your journey of loving well

Your relationships and feelings will not change overnight, but when you begin a walk of loving well, they will change. Stay on the road. What’s the other choice? Walking a road of loving poorly, hatred, selfishness, competition, jealousy, gossip, envy? Who wants that? Today is always a great day for love. The world so desperately needs it.