This week, my darling baby bear moves into the ripe age of twenty. In celebration, I plan to compose a week-long series of entries inspired by her! (I emphasize the word plan.)
The thoughts below reflect my opinion alone. Feel free to share your opinion in a constructive manner.
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(Please excuse my extremely blemished face and yellow teeth)
On the Subject of Sacrifice as it Pertains to the Nature of Love
The nature of love is sacrifice. To truly love, you must be willing to sacrifice. Although the degree of one’s love is not expressly proportionate to the amount one is willing to sacrifice, it is a good indicator when combined with certain other factors I won’t elaborate upon in this passage.
What are you willing to give up for love? Friends? Family? A career? Your nature? These are all things which some of us may have difficulty sacrificing, and there are many who would say that love is not worth the sacrifice of any of these.
Still, I sincerely believe that love is worth giving up any and all of these things. I do not speak of the crush that sits in the front of the class with the vooice of honey. I do not speak of the one-night stand that you met during spring break. No, I do not speak of the guy that you’ve been dating for years but hardly talk to and rarely see. I speak of love in the most beautiful sense–that which is shared by two people who not only respect each other, but respect themselves. The love that one finds in intimacy, shared triumph and pain, and in silent company is worth everything. That love that brews warmly at times–bubbling and hot at others.
To this, my opponents would respond that one should not have to sacrifice so much for his mate. My counter to this is that, while one should be willing to sacrifice so much, his partner should not ask it of him, and vice-versa. In this way, the equation of love remains balanced, as it always should be.
An important thing of note would be that this sacrifice should never occur with regret, spite, or ire. Love is so powerful, so poignant, that the idea of the sacrifice should not be that you are giving something up, but that you are gaining something else. Love should make all of us men and women want to be better persons for the sake of our mates. Less cruelty, less anger, less spite, less greed, more generosity, more care, more kindness, and more understanding should all be requisites of love.
So all ye men and women, give up your pride, your anger, your scorn, your jealousy, your greed, your callousness, learn to love yourself, and then love. Love as you never have loved. Love as if ur life depended on it, because if it truly is love, then it does!
The Tao of Love Part 2: On the Importance of Maintaining Equilibrium in Love
Amazing. You’re view of Love here is very similar to mine, even though we come from completely different backgrounds.
In a letter to the Ephesians, Paul, a follower of Jesus, said this of marriage:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up [and died] for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word [that is, the scriptures], and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ … each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
The above sums up the core of my faith about marriage and how it should be. Wives must respect their husbands, and be willing to follow them, and husbands must be willing to lay down their lives for their wives.
Great insight into love, Jamie. I really like the way you think.