True love.

What is true love exactly? Is it the warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you see a cute guy or girl? When you finally get a boyfriend or girlfriend to hold your hand, is that love? What about your first kiss?

I believe true love, is something deeper.

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-13 it says,

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preservers. Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfection disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And know these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I know, I know, this is a lot to take in. But if God didn't think that we would confuse love with lust, love wouldn't be in the Bible so many times. See, our society does just that, we confuse love with lust. But unlike lust, God's love is directed outward towards others, not inwards towards ourselves. This love goes against our natural inclinations.

How do we get this love? First, we need to love God before our friends, our worldly possessions, even our own family. Only when we love God more then anything, or anyone, else, can we hope to have this love. But when we get it, it will shine through us and will actually help us love others even more then we do right now. Second, the more we become like Christ, the more love we will show others. This is one of the many reasons that we have to strive to become like Christ, without a Christ-like character, the love we have means very little.

True love isn't easy, but it must be fought for, because once you find it, it can never be replaced.

James (a.k.a Prince Charming) from Once Upon a Time.

(I think James and I are talking about a different sort of love, though.)