Tuesday, December 2, 2014

The Secret to Never Failing in Relationships

Do we really know what love is? Do we really know how to love? Too many of us, perhaps, have had bad examples of what love is or what love is not. --- Let me knock out one myth about love right now...it is not a wimpy, frilly kind of thing. Love is the bomb! Love never fails. You cannot say that about anything else. Love never stinking fails. That is gospel truth. You see, written in black and white in the Bible it says, "Love never fails." --- Since we do not want to be losers, maybe we should have a better grasp of what love is so we can alway win. --- In all likelihood if you are a believer (a Christian), you have read or heard 1 Cor.13:4-8 many times (if not hundreds). The problem is that we can hear something many times, but never get it. Why is that? Mostly, because we don't want to. You see, the secret to love starts out like this: "Love is patient." We all want love for us. We all will say we want to love others. However, if it starts out with being patient with others, "Ahem, no thank you." So, if you really don't want to be a loser, and you want to always win, then you have to do love the right way. And it begins with patience. The next part of love is being kind. The issue here is that we want to be kind to certain people, and we are tempted to be conditional with our kindness. Frankly, some people have a problem being kind. Again, if you are going to love people (and win) then this is part of the deal. ---Let's pause here. Most people have given up on love with the first two. Am I right?--- Caution: if you falter here you will not make it to the end. "It does not envy" is the third part. Are you envious of others? This is a problem. We have to die to self. Love is hard. Hang tough though, it is worth it! "Love does not boast." This idea of being puffed-up can be a problem to love. It can be a spoiler. It leads to the next, "love is not proud." We all know pride comes before a fall, or something like that. We definitely know that pride hinders our walk. It is for sure a detriment to love. "It is not rude." It seems like this could go unsaid, yet many of us are more rude to the people we say we love than to a stranger on the street. That is a problem. That is a hindrance. "It is not self-seeking " or "easily angered" are two more on the list. Stay with me. Love is not easy, but it is worth it. If you are looking out for others first, and they are looking out for you, then that is a sweet world. We all like it when someone has our back. That is why we are better together. The ability to not be easily angered leads to good sound judgment. A calm demeanor helps you win. This even works with raising children. I always like to say, "if you are yelling, then you are losing." The writer goes on to say that "love keeps no record of wrongs." Ah. Can you do that? Can you let stuff go? You better. If you are going to win in love, you have to let stuff go. Love is hard, but it is worth it. Hang tough. "Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth." Do not be happy when bad happens to others. Maybe you thought they had it coming, but love does not delight in evil. There is a saying, "the truth hurts." I have my own spin on that, "the truth only hurts when you are on the wrong side of it." We are to rejoice with the truth, because the truth gets us to the right place and keeps us on the right path. Ignore the truth, and you are going to have problems. --- Now, here's the goody. Here's why we want to love like the Bible says to love even though it is hard to do. It involves a little word that can rarely be used, but helps in our times of greatest need: "always." Always is solid ground. Listen, "love always protects, always trusts, always hopes and and perseveres." We want all of those things. And love "always" does these. Finally, "love never fails." ---Certainly, it is hard to do all these things. Know this, there is a promise in here. If you love like this, your love will never fail. So, take your relationship(s) to a new level. Be patient, be kind, etc. Do what loves does, and never fail. --- If you have success in relationships, then you will succeed in life. We're better together.