Love Is...


With another Valentine’s Day having come and gone, I am reminded that as a teenager living in the 70’s, my favorite part of the newspaper was Kim Caslai’s “Love is…” comic, even cutting out and taping my favorites to my bedroom mirror. When the movie “Love Story” came out proponing “Love means never having to say your sorry”, this little comic wisely came back, “Love is... being able to say you are sorry". There always has been, and always will be conflicting voices on every topic, even love. Thirty years have passed, and we still are silent observers, carrying on our own unofficial study of what real love truly is. Certainly no one should diminish the small, but beautiful acts of love and kindness which bring honor to both the loved and the lover: Warmly caring for one’s aging parents, sacrificing overtime to be with one’s children, or lending a shoulder to a troubled friend.

There exists around us, however, champions of love—heroes who know not they are superstars in love’s Hall of Fame. Over the past year, here are the superheroes I’ve recently brushed elbows with that I believe deserve a trophy:

  • The husband in our congregation who, when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, not only kept his “in sickness and in health” vow, but made all sacrifices necessary to be present and attentive to her every need. This is love.
  • A young man I know who thought he had found, after a decade of looking, his perfect match. “Please forgive me for putting my desire for having a wife over your desire to go to school”, he sincerely and selflessly told her, as she continued her plans to go away to finish her degree. This is love.
  • The mother I know who serves, night and day, her son with cystic fibrosis whom she loves, who can do absolutely nothing for himself, much less express much of the love his own heart must hold for her. Nevertheless she sacrifices much, hour-by-hour, year in and year out. This is legendary altruism. This is authentic love.


Love is not always what we think. Ironically, the counterfeit sometimes feels more like love than love does. When such counterfeits cause scandals to surface in our newspapers, this I know for sure—real love is always honorable and selfless. Let’s determine to use our words and actions to begin cycles of honor in all our interactions. The most beautiful and comprehensive description of what real love is, I believe was communicated best by the Author of love Himself, when He says, Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Life is about relationships, and life is far too short to miss out on opportunities to make these relationships all they can be. Let’s love well.

Cindy Dunagan
cindy@straightpathspress.com
Author of the Journaling Toward Moral Excellence series of journals for young writers, preteens, teenagers, and young adults.
www.straightpathspress.com.

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