Has love become a cultural trend?
With Valentine’s Day coming up we’re constantly thinking about love. We talk about love, we read about love and we hang it on our walls. Some may be at peace with the love in their lives and others may struggle to feel loved or give love.
Do you look forward to Valentine’s Day as a way to celebrate the loves in your life or do you find it to be a point of stress and anxiety?
Has this love word been tossed around so freely in our society that it has become a trend or another go to for the holidays? Comment below and share your thoughts.
Recently, on my site, I had a Loved Beyond Giveaway. I asked people who wanted to enter to leave me a comment telling me how they show love. Because love is more than a word it is an action.
Here are two examples of love in action illustrated in the Bible. Check out the similarities.
1. Jesus (without stating what may seem obvious) gave sacrificially His love regardless if that love was going to be reciprocated. In fact, it was given while we completely undeserved it. Why would a God of the universe give life to people who didn’t deserve it? We see in Romans because He wanted to demonstrate or prove His own love and so He gave himself up for us.
Romans 5:8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
That is a love we will experience in no one and nothing else. Love from God is not just a trend, it is real and beyond anything we can comprehend. In fact, while we were pretty awful, Christ left His heavenly home and came to dwell among us and died to prove how great His love is.
If this is a love that you have questions about, I am here, friend. I would love to have a conversation about the love Jesus has for you and demonstrated in the most amazing way.
Romans 5:8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
That is a love we will experience in no one and nothing else. Love from God is not just a trend, it is real and beyond anything we can comprehend. In fact, while we were pretty awful, Christ left His heavenly home and came to dwell among us and died to prove how great His love is.
If this is a love that you have questions about, I am here, friend. I would love to have a conversation about the love Jesus has for you and demonstrated in the most amazing way.
2. Ruth and Naomi (this fascinating story is found in the book of Ruth) – Naomi was from Judah. She and her husband left their country to move to Moab. They had two sons. Naomi’s husband died. The two sons married Moabite women. Then the two sons died. Naomi decided to go back to Judah and implored her daughters-in-law to go back to their families and back to their gods. After weeping, Orpah chooses to do just that. Ruth chose a different path. She chooses to give up her land, her gods and all she knew because she loved Naomi. She wanted to remain with her. Listen to the words of Ruth after Naomi insists she returns to her family. This is quite beautiful.
Ruth 1:16–17 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
Ruth had made up her mind and gave up all she ever knew to show her love to Naomi and was resolved to stay with her.
What kind of love is this? Is this a love we experience with others? Is this the kind of love we are willing to give to Christ?
This beautiful demonstration of unselfish love is a love that we don’t often want to give at the risk of losing ourselves. This love, however, is the love that God asks us to give to Him.
Mark 8:34 tells us how we must follow Jesus.
Then, calling the crowd to join His disciples, He said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.
Then, calling the crowd to join His disciples, He said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.
Daily, we must deny ourselves or turn from our selfish ways and take up our cross.
Which of these two people do you most relate to today?
Orpah, who wept deeply at the idea of leaving Naomi but took little persuasion to go the other way.
As one commentator put it, it is like standing in the doorway. We want to give ourselves to God but we have all these other comforts, land, people, and little gods that we are not willing to give up. We look to God as our King and Savior but we hang out in the middle ground. In the in-between. We weep at the risk of losing Him but in the end, choose to go the other way, away from Him, back toward our old self. (This is my abbreviated version)
Or we can choose to be like Ruth. Be willing to give up our land, our people, our gods, our comforts to the end. All for the sake of love.
Those are tough questions; ones we have to ask ourselves quite regularly because even if we want to be like Ruth we often find ourselves turning back to our old ways.
One thing I can testify to, although I get this loving thing wrong so often, is the more I give up myself to God, the more I love. The more I can share, give and be love.
Will we choose to do more than hang love on the walls of our homes and hang it on the walls of our hearts?
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I often say too that the word love is passed around to freely in our culture. Yet, true love, agape love is the one love that I wish everyone could experience in its glory. Sometimes, it is hard to wrap my head around how much our God loves me. Yet, all I or any of us can do is strive to be more like Jesus every moment. Thanks for linking with us today on Tuesday Talk and for offering your party up to us.
I agree Michelle and I think that we have to be careful when we express the love that God has for us it is genuine and not this conjured love that we pass along without any heart behind it.
I agree with Michele on this. One of the most abused word sadly is Love!
Thank you for this reflection here…gives me something to think about too.
Hugs and Sweet Blessings to you
Thank you friend for stopping by. I am glad to be surrounded by such lovely friends that are so grounded in their faith.
Hey Jamie,
Thank you for the challenge to love more. We want to be one of those families who does more than simply hang beautifully decorated hearts on the walls of our home. Thank you for the reminder that love–real love–takes work and intentional effort. Wishing you a happy Valentines.
I love hearts hanging on the wall if the people seeing them know that they are genuine and they know that it is because of God that I can have the love come from my heart. Love is not easy and sometimes at home it is the easiest place to mess this up. Thankfully God continues to be a work in us. Thank you for stopping by Jed!
Thank you for hosting! It is hard to really get true love with the way the world is nowadays! You used 2 perfect examples!
Thank you for stopping Debbie. Looking to Christ as an example and relying on His power in us is the only way to truly love the "unlovable". Often times that is us though. Thankfully the one who is in us is greater than all that is in this world.
Oh, I do so want to be like Ruth, but I fear I am often more like Orpah (did you know that Oprah Winfrey was named after Orpah, but they spelled it wrong on her birth certificate? Interestingly, she chose Orpah and not Ruth…but that's another story, not mine to tell…sorry, squirrel!) BTW– I never liked V-day. I like to tell/show people I love them every day, not when Hallmark tells me to…a little cynicism (sp??) in there for you.
Love that Mary, squirrel. That is often me. Totally sidetracked and need to regain focus. Sadly, I think that it is sometimes easy to fall into our old sinful selves and lean back into the comforts that may be around us. Fortunately we can lean on the power of the Lord at those times. Thanks for sharing.
Jaime, I really appreciate your heart to share this. It's certainly a call for me to love deeper and more intentionally. And Valentine's Day is a great time to point others to the love that we can only experience in Christ. Wishing you blessings!
Marva, always love connecting with new friends. I hope to see you back this week. Often times the holidays are such great opportunities to point people to Christ. They have their ears and hearts perked up to what is going on. God can use what He wills to get to the hearts of people and we have a great opportunity to put it out there for people to see.
I think that we should show our love for those who we love everyday and not some holiday that is sponsored by Hallmark.
If you look at the real Father Valentine, who was a Roman Priest at a time when there was an emperor called Claudias who persecuted the church at that particular time. Claudias also had an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people. This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died.
Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against command of Emperor Claudius the second. In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius' daughter. He inspired today's romantic missives by signing it, "from your Valentine. Valentine had prayed with Asterius and healed her from her being blind.
I just find it interesting that we celebrate the commercial part of Valentine's Day and not what it really means.
Patrick, thanks for this story. I found it interesting to see that soldiers would fight differently when they were married. I would have to say that I would agree with that. I know that personally, I think of my husband before I make many decisions. If it came to life and death my decisions may be altered. However, I may fight harder to return to my love than if I felt I had none. Great story. Thanks for sharing.
Greater love hath no man….thank you for pointing your readers to TRUTH.
Thank you Susan for joining us. I love having new friends sit down and share life with us. Such a great verse. I wonder how often we would truly lay down our lives for a friend. Would or could we show that kind of love? Thanks for sharing.
Unconditional love that never gives up – The redeeming grace that the cold-unfeeling law didn't have! Love risks devolution when we don't understand that!
To feel the unconditional love of God and truly understand that it is not based on us but purely on who He is. Keeps things in perspective. So glad to be on this side of grace. Thank you for sharing this week.
I am not a fan of Valentines Day – simply because for a few years – I haven't had a Valentine! What's to celebrate then? But oh what joy I now see in the love of Jesus. Truth is this was an excellent read – it got me thinking about a song that I love..it says we have had our share of 'love abuse'(God favoured me) and because our 'love' has been abused, we 'share' it in so many dysfunctional ways. We accept so many dysfunctional ways of being loved that soon God's love seems so hard to accept; it doesn't seem real and we liken it to the 'love' we see and receive in the world. This feels like a post..haha..but it was on my heart and I thank you for pure reminders of love!
You are loved dear friend! A love that no one can ever fulfill like Jesus can. Can be hard to celebrate a holiday that focuses on the love that you are or are not getting from another person. It often tells us our value is in that love. As believers, this is never the case.
Have fun with this post idea you have created. Maybe we could work on something together. 😉 We look forward to reading it. Many blessings friend.
Jaime, this is a great post about love! The example of Ruth and Naomi resonated specifically because a few friends and I are going through a Bible study on Ruth by Paul Miller entitled "A Loving Life" which spends a great deal of time expanding an understanding of hesed love as evidenced by Naomi, Boaz, and certainly Christ. You might find Paul's book of interest. Blessings on your day and thanks for the linkup!
Pam, so glad you are here this week. This sounds interesting. I had never really looked at the similarities in Ruth and the love of Christ until I was reading for writing this, I found it so interesting and amazing how God make His Word come to life for us.
Beautiful message, my friend. Thanks so much for hosting and hope you have an amazing weekend 🙂
I am always so glad to see you here, friend. Thank you for sharing your life with us here and all of your homeschool adventures. You have a wonderful week.
Thanks for sharing with #SocialButterflySunday, Jaime! I enjoy that we each get a chance to catch up and share our lives at our link up parties. Hope to see you link up again this week! Have an amazing weekend 🙂
Love this post…so true…loved people love people…oh that we could freely receive the love God pours out on us in the finished work of Christ…we all who are forgiven much love much…many blessings to you ❤️
Our love comes from Christ alone. It is not easy but with Christ's power He can change our hearts. Blessed to have Him. Thank you for stopping Beth.
Hi Jaime, Such a great post! We should strive to love like Christ, but I think you are right about society. The l-o-v-e word is like a cool thing to say. It has lost its meaning in many situations! Thank you, as always, for hosting this beautiful link up community! Hugs, Lori
Lori, I am s happy that you stop by. It is easy to try to adjust our thinking to fit into what is trendy, especially when it comes to showing love. But real genuine love, that only comes from the true source of love, is always more meaningful and lasting. It gets us through the thick and thin of it all. Glad you are here again this week.
Good Morning Jaime, I'm so happy you joined our party. Better late than never I always say. I enjoy what you bring to it so keep them coming. Thanks for hosting yours too.
Thanks Michelle, I have you on my list now. I can pop right over on Thursdays and Tuesdays. Great connecting with you!
Hi Jaime. I love this post on love. HA! I so agree with what you said "the more I give myself up to God, the more I love". So true and the more I spend in His Word the more I love Him.
Ha! The more I die to my sinful selfish self, the more of Christ's love that is available to come through me. That is the tough part sometimes, getting pass ourselves to get to the source. Thank you for sharing your heart with us today!
Jaime,
For someone with the name of "I love you" in French, you have chosen great examples of love. With all these communities, I am your neighbour from somewhere – I got lost in the Internet. 🙂 And I linked up.
Blessings,
Janis
I actually have a button that has Je'taime on it or something like that I don't really speak french. However it is encouraging to know I could mean love in some language. Glad you stopped by and linked up with us again this week Janis. Have a great week.
Jaime,
As for love, 1 John 4:7: Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. Great post you have here.
I am extremely grateful that I have found your blog. I have have a Christian Blog on blogger myself. I have not posted like I should have on it, but yes I am still a Christ Server. I love the Lord,and had my first experience at the age of 9.
It is more cool to see this many followers to a Christian blog as I could never get mine going. Therefore, I even ventured out with a website (I took it down, no luck there either). I have been writing online for 6 years, prayed, cried, worked hard and have written tones of what I thought were good, inspiring articles. This is why I am telling you congratulations to you for having the audience, and a beautiful blog to "PRAISE THE LORD." As you will see I connected 3 of my sites in the link up. I have also input your Widget on The Christian Network. I also have a Life Coaching/motivational self help blog. Just in case you have the time to check them out.
I am so glad that I clicked further in an email and bloghop. http://christian-network.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-fruit-of-spirit-and-little-foxes.html, http://www.lifecoaching-help.com as well as http://thewomanspost.com/. **If you need to remove the links, I understand but just wanted you to see where I write also.
Thank you and God Bless
Linda, Blogging is a tough business. It can be quite discouraging because you want to be able to serve the Lord and do His great name some justice. Truth be told He can do it without us. But He delights in us. He delights in us doing things for His kingdom and for His Glory. But whether we are cooking dinner for our family or praying for a friend or conquering the internet, it needs to be to His Glory and Praise. It is the why? I have to keep in focus when I get discouraged. I am glad that you stopped by today. I have checked out your sites and left comments there. You have a great week and keep writing and post up again this week. If you don't have any new posts right now, post up some older stuff you would like to get more exposure. Have a great week.
The modern take on romantic love is heavily laden with cultural trends, isn't it? I'm so thankful that God showed us what love really looks like by sacrificing His Son while we were still His enemies. Thank you for sharing this with us at Grace & Truth!
Different kinds of love can be exaggerated and made, like you said, into only romantic love. But the unconditional, undeserved love we get from God is like no other. Our love leaves gaps and sometimes feelings of emptiness. God's love will never do that because He is the fullness of love. I am glad you stopped by Jennifer. Thank you for sharing your insight.
I am always trying through Jesus's example with my children. He love will last a eternity and he loves each and every person in the world no matter what. Thank you for linking up to Family Joy Blog Link Up Party this week. Have a wonderful week.
It seems especially hard when it comes to our kids. I used to think I had a lot of patience. Now that I have children, I think it is a virtue that flew right out the window. Bless them. They are beautiful little people. The one thing I tell my kids all the time is I love them no matter what. My hopes are one day when it is especially hard to come to me with something they know in advance it will not change my love for them. More importantly, when they want to come to God with something, they will have experienced an unconditional love. Thanks for sharing your heart with us, Charlene.