Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

LEARNING LOVE Television, movies, novels, and magazines seem to teach that falling in love is something like catching a cold. That is, we don't know exactly how we get it, but it surely makes us feel different. God's Word takes a different posture about love. Love is not nearly as mystical as the romanticists would have us believe. Love is something we learn. It is also something that can be taught. Paul writes: The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things--that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed (Titus 2:3-5). Love often is swallowing our pride and enduring. This we have to learn. Most of us are thermometers, merely reflecting our environment. God wants us to be thermostats, controlling it. We must learn to give more of ourselves than what others may reasonably expect. That is what Paul means when he speaks of learning to love. It seems as though everyday we can learn something new about love. Loving is a lifelong course, and our graduation comes only with release into glory.