Interesting Thought on Love...

As I think about it, as I look at the types of love which take place between humans, there seems to be an order of loves. Some loves seem more important, and some loves seem to depend on other loves.

I think the most important love (on a human level) is the love between a parent and a child. It is this love that prepares the child for all other loves that they will experience in their lives. If a child is not properly loved by its parents or does not love its parents properly, that person will find it difficult to engage in all the other types of love that he/she will come across, including friendship love, romantic love, and, when the time comes, the love towards his/her own children. On the other hand, if the child experiences love and participates in the love in the parent/child relationship, it will be enabled to better love others in all sorts of love relationships.

Also, parent/child love works in the life of the parent, bringing him/her to being selfless in his/her actions. Their life becomes dedicated to the well-being and growth of the child, and they find their happiness greatly dependent upon the well-being and proper growth of the child. So, the parent experiences growth as well, and is made more capable of other types of love by the love for the child.

Now, of course, even though this kind of love is the most important, it is dependent on other types of love. For example, the success of love in the parent/child relationship can depend greatly on the relationship between the two parents. If they love one another, then they are both better enabled to love the child, and the child to love them. There are more, but I do not feel like thinking of them right now.

[At this time, I would like to make a quick parenthesis and say thank you to my parents: Thank you guys for being faithful to God and to one another and to me in your love for me. Thank you for your grace, for I recognize that I have not always been the best son. I know I don't say it often enough, but thank you guys a whole lot, and, from the bottom of my heart, I love you. Please continue on in hope and perseverance as you continue to raise my younger brothers. I will try to honor you, Mom and Dad, as I work to live with love for those around me, whether friends, or my (hopefully) someday wife and children. Again, I love you!]

Of course, all the types of love between humans are greatly dependent upon a love for God. Love for God gives depth and meaning to all the other types of love, for He is Love, and in Him do we find the most perfect example of what love looks like. In Christ is love perfected and revealed to us. And, we are able to love and find reason to love, because God loves us.

Thus, above all else, love for God must be developed and cherished, because it is the foundation and the essence of all other loves.

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Lord, help me to love you more as I try to live my life. May the amazing truth of your love be underneath, supporting all my other loves as a foundation, and far above, for it is far greater than any love that I can show and is worthy of honor, glory, and praise.

God, please let your love be reflected in my love for all those around me. Please work in me and through me that others who come in contact with me might experience your awesome love, and that they might come to love you more, for you are worthy of all our love.

Again, please let love be the defining quality in my life, as I try to love you and love others, to your glory.

I pray all these things in Jesus' Name, AMEN