The Flip Side of Love

Love is the most popular four-letter word. Everybody is in search of love yet it eludes most of us...young, old, married, single, rich, poor, famous, nobodies, short, tall, ugly, pretty and what have you.

We all desire to be loved and we all deserve to be loved. Some people have survived because of love; others have died for lack of love

"I love you" is the most abused sentence of all time because, in most cases, the proclamation is not backed with the required actions. Love in my opinion is more of responsibility than emotions.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 has these to say about love:
Love is patient and kind.
Love is not jealous, boastful or proud.
Love does not demand its own way.
It is not irritable and it does not keep record of wrongs.
It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.

We all have loved ones either by blood or by bond. Is the love we profess to them backed with the necessary level of responsibility?

Going by the book of Corinthians, when I say "I love you", I am inadvertently saying that...
There will definitely be times when you will try my patience but I will stick by you.
I owe you kindness whether I think you deserve it or not.
When good things happen to you, I will rejoice with you and when good things happen to me, I will not show off to you to the point of arrogance.
There will definitely be times we will disagree but if need be, I will be big enough to stoop and I will act selflessly.
If it happens to be a day, week or season when you are grating on my last nerve, I will keep my cool, I will have selective amnesia and not allow lack of forgiveness breed the seed of bitterness in my heart.
Even when I think you deserve it, I will not treat you unjustly and I will be upset if someone else treats you so.
In pain and in tears, through thick and thin, through storms and hurricanes, I will not only stick by you; I will also believe in you.

In a nutshell, "I love you" simply means that I know that you are imperfect but I choose to stick with you and forgive your imperfections.


"I love you" to me, means I forgive you in advance and at this point, I guess it's safe to say that the flip side of love is not hate; the flip side of love is forgiveness.

Love is not a destination; it is a journey...what a responsibility!