What I wish someone had told me to fall in love with

As a little girl, I grew up watching Disney Princesses and Hallmark movies. From princes and princesses to kings and queens, I quickly built up the idea that when I reached maturity, I would fall in love by accident and live happily ever after. However, as a child, I didn't realize that love rarely happens like in movies. And there were a lot of things I wish someone had told me about falling in love before me.

At twenty-one, I remember crying on my floor because I was single. In fact, I cried so much that a water stain was actually visible on my hardwood floor. But at that time, before I was ever in a relationship, I truly believe the Lord was preparing my heart and making room for true love to grow.

When I met my fiancé in barely a year later, there were three things I learned about love. Even though it's now been nearly five years since we met, each is still applicable and worth sharing:

While it might seem obvious, one thing that surprised me about love when i started dating is that love is action. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love is patient, kind, and forgiving. But it is easy to read this verse and subtract its application. Outside of the app, love looks easy. It's a feel-good feeling we want more of, including butterflies and warm fluff. But as the Passion Translation writes, love requires much more serious work and action than we would let on:

"Love is tall and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and always kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when the blessing comes to someone else. Love does not boast of its achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor does it selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to be offended. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no pleasure in what is wrong.Love is a safe haven, for it never ceases to believe in the best for others.Love never regards failure as defeat, for it never gives up. Love never ceases to love. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades. It is more enduring than tongues, which will one day be silent. Love remains long after the words of knowledge are forgotten Our present knowledge and our prophecies are only partial, but when the perfect ion of love will come, the partial part will fade" (1 Corinthians 13:4-10).

Despite a common misconception, love, by God's definition, is an action verb, not a passive noun. And if God is Love (name) (1 John 4:7-21), Love is not just an eternal person but an active pursuit of passion.

Perhaps the greatest show of love was when Love Himself sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins, knowing that we might never love Him back. And we certainly could never repay Him. True love is not concerned with itself but with others. And the moment love is isolated from feeling and subtracted from action, it is simply no longer love.

Jesus remained simple when he said in 1 John 3:18:, and he does it by giving his example: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ gave his life to We. And we must lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no mercy on them, how can the love of God be in that person?" (1 John 3:16 -17, VIN).

Jesus never asks us to do something that He has not already done or given to us. Why would anyone expect less? Why, then, wouldn't we selflessly give love and lavish it on others?

Once the honeymoon phase of infatuation passed, I quickly realized that love is not just an action but takes a lot of work. And especially once Ben and I started to open up and be real with each other, it was obvious that our love was going to take patience, perseverance and a lot of resilience.

A lot of you may roll your eyes if you've been dating for a while, but you and your partner are going to have some disagreements. No matter how great the other person may be, they are not a carbon copy of you! And chances are that means you won't agree on something...