Love in Our Marriages and in Our Relationships

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. I Corinthians 13:1-3. Love works. It is life's most powerful motivator and has far greater depth and meaning than most people realize. It always does what is best for others and can empower you to face the greatest (of) problems. We are born with a lifelong thirst for love.Our hearts desperately need it, like our lungs need oxygen. Love changes our motivation for living. Relationships become meaningful with it. No marriage is successful without it. Love is built on two pillars; patience and kindness. All other characteristics of love are extensions of these two attributes. Love will inspire you to become a patient person. When you choose to be patient, you respond in positive ways to negative situations. You are slow to anger. You choose to have a long fuse instead of a quick temper. Rather than being restless and demanding, love helps you settle down and begin extending mercy to those around you. Patience brings an internal calm during an external storm. No one likes to be around an impatient person. It causes you to overreact in angry, foolish, and regrettable ways. The irony of anger toward a wrongful action is that it spawns new wrongs of its own. Anger almost never makes things better. It usually generates additional problems, whereas patience can stop problems in their tracks. Patience is a deep breath. It clears the air, and stops foolishness from whipping its scorpion tail all over the room. It is a choice to control your emotions rather than allowing your emotions to control you, and shows discretion instead of returning evil for evil. Anger stems from impatience and is usually caused when the strong desire for something is mixed with disappointment or grief. You don't get what you want and you start heating up inside. It is an emotional reaction that flows out of your own selfishness, your own foolishness, or your evil motives. Few people are as hard to live with as an impatient person. As sure as a lack of patience will turn your home into a war zone, the practice of patience will foster peace and quiet. Patience is where love meets wisdom. It helps you give your spouse permission to be human. It understands that everyone fails. When a mistake is made, it chooses to give them more time than they deserve to correct it. It gives you the ability to hold on during the tough times in your relationship rather than bailing out under the pressure. There are few that do patients very well, and none do it naturally. But wise men and women will pursue it as an essential ingredient to their marriage relationship. In your journey in a progressive marriage the first thing you must resolve to possess is patience, because patience is an act of love (The Love Dare, pages 1-3). Sherry P.S. The Love Dare book is a book written to give guidance for any marriage. If its counsel is followed it can strengthen any marriage and give new meaning to your relationship. If you don't think you need any advise, you need to think twice and take the time to be blessed by a very spiritually and insightful way to look for an even better love connection with your spouse.

Sherry