According to the Oxford Languages love is 1. “an intense feeling of deep affection; 2. a great interest and pleasure in something.” According to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient and kind; loves does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  And, in fun jest, according to the Disney princesses and princes it is having a handsome young prince save a beautiful young princess in some manner, they kiss and live happily ever after. When we fall in love we become lighter in mood, happier, more hopeful, and we can hardly wait until we see this person again. We get “butterflies” in our stomach thinking about that individual and the first kiss with our new found love sends us to the moon. If all goes well marriage will follow along with children and then confusion and fighting because of the expectations a large percentage of the population has for what love is supposed to be like, i.e. Disney fairytales. Well I can tell you from experience that love is not a fairytale and is very much misunderstood and after years of religious growth and understanding I want to share with you what love really looks like.

I agree with the dictionary’s mean of love and definitely agree with the Bible. I think the Bible describes what love is the best and God and his son Jesus are the ultimate examples of expressing love especially when God sacrifices His only son because He loves us and when Jesus accepts this task from His father and suffers brutality and death because He loves us too. And, after watching Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, which painted a very vivid and realistic portrayal of what Jesus went through for us, acted as a visual of what love means. I see the word “love” expressed through me dogs eyes when he looks at me and excited to see me at any time of the day or when he ferociously protects me from strangers, or no matter how many times I scold him he still snuggles up to me. Can we say that about ourselves when we are scolded by the ones we love? Do we turn the other cheek as Jesus taught us and give them a hug or do we fight back? I also see Love expressed when a mother looks into her newborn’s eyes for the first time and from that moment on instinctively and silently vows to protect that child for their rest of her life. I can continue to give examples of what love looks like to me but I will not and will simply say that Love is truly being able to forgive, trust, give, understand, and make any type of sacrifice no matter the cost. Love can be painful at times but totally worth it. So if we let ourselves love and we love all we will find peace and happiness in many ways.