Love isn't just the words you say to someone. True love isn't a feeling or emotion. You hear young teenagers often say, "We are so in love. I know you don't think it's possible for people so young to be in love, but we are." And the adults roll their eyes. Although it's true that chances are those young people haven't found true love, they'll have many more relationships as they go through high school and college before settling down, so they might someday. But that makes me wonder if WE know what true love really is.
I hear all the time that love is an emotion-that it's how we feel towards someone. But there's a problem with this definition.
Many of us claim to have been in love at one point. So what changes that we don't love that person anymore? One thing that I've learned in life: we are creatures of emotion. Our mood and emotions can be affected by the weather, what we eat, what someone says to us, what we see on television, or any of a million small things. Love isn't an emotion, or how you feel about someone. It's much, much more than that.
Love is an action. You can say "I love you!" to someone all you want, and feel like you love them, but if there's no action behind it, then it's meaningless. Love is knowing everything about that person, and accepting them and loving them anyway. Love is a commitment. It is saying I will be there for you no matter what. It's not saying "I do, UNTIL something better comes along, or UNTIL I no longer feel like it." It's a commitment that lasts forever, through thick or thin. There is never a Plan B, or "What if . . . ." True love endures through any and every circumstance. It's you being willing to give up your life for them, whether that means by taking a bullet or by the small things in your daily life, such as giving up something that displeases them. True love is a life decision, a daily decision, an every-second decision. It's putting your partner first in everything. True love is a two-way street, where both parties meet more than halfway to solve a problem. True love is being patient in everything. It is being unselfish in everything you do. True love keeps no record of being wronged. It is forgiveness. True love never gives up.
This is why I believe that you can't truly love two people at the same time. You might have feelings for two people, but you can't really love both of them because love is an unselfish dedication to one person and willing to give them everything. True love is more than words, more than a feeling, more than an action, more than a lifestyle.
True love is LIFE.
