Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

In my lifetime,I have been told “I love you” many times, by many different people.

In my lifetime, I have said “I love you” many times, to many different people.

This much I have learned—Love is not about what you say. Love is about what you DO!

Love is not manipulative. Love is not self-absorbed. Love does not lie, or cheat, or steal.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

1 Corinthians 13 _MSG

And so,o.o, dear heart, if I tell you “I love you” know this…

I believe that God is LOVE. 1 John 4 and God enables me to love, even the unlovable.

Jesus did.

I also believe that when the things you DO aren’t lining up with the words you are speaking, I am not required to like, or approve of, your actions. If I tell you I don’t like or approve of your actions it does not mean I have stopped loving you. It simply means I don’t like what you’re doing very much.

Forgiveness is mandatory

If you tell me that you love me, please, don’t expect me to overlook what you’re doing forever. Love never gives up, so I will always love you, Forgiveness is mandatory. It’s just that sometimes the best way to show love is to brush the dust from my feet and move away from your negative behavior.

Reconciliation is optional

I have learned that it is impossible for me to save people OR change them. That job belongs to God and God alone. That means when I brush the dust from my feet and move away from a ‘LOVE’ relationship which has turned toxic, God will either change me or change you, but reconciliation is always optional.

That being said, I close by quoting Apostle John…

So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:16