Love

There are so many ways to love someone...

Patient love...that's love that doesn't give up, no matter what. You need that when it's difficult to love you, when you're in danger of being left alone on your own. Patient love requires sacrifice.

Kind love...being kind when someone isn't kind to you; when they annoy you, irritate you and annoy you. Kind love is kind when there is no reason to be.

Unenvious love... love that doesn't have what the other person has but is happy for them anyway; love that rejoices in someone else's victory whilst still waiting for their own deliverance; love that doesn't just pretend to be happy at someone's success but really is happy. Love like that is hard to find.

Love that doesn't boast...love that comes down to someone else's level to meet them where they are but without an underlying superiority; love that is not afraid to show weakness and that treats selfishness and pride with contempt; love that gives without receiving back in equal measure.

Love that isn't rude or easily angered... love that shows courtesy and respect; love that isn't touchy or irritable. Love that has the grace to take anything that is thrown at it and not retaliate with rudeness or anger. Love that stands the trials of irritation and going round in circles like when dealing with telephone support lines that cost £1 a minute and don't answer even the simplest questions.

Love that doesn't keep a record of wrongs...love that takes no account of a suffered wrong but just goes on as if it never happened; love that can't be offended or upset.

Love that delights in the truth... love that wants to hear the truth no matter how painful or how much it hurts and love that will tell the truth no matter how hard

Love that is a friend, that is there for you and would do anything for you;

Love that wants to be with someone so much it hurts;

Love that isn't blind to your faults, isn't looking at you through rose-tinted spectacles, isn't surprised at what you do but thinks that you are the most amazing person in the whole world...love that would rather spend an hour with you just talking about nothing but with every moment counting for something;

Love that always protects, even when it's costly;

Love that always trusts, even when it's been let down many times before;

Love that always thinks the best no matter what other people say.

"Those three words are said too much... they're not enough"

We all need to give different kinds of love and receive them too. There are people in my life that I love very much and in very different ways. There's someone that needs my patient love and someone that I love as a friend... someone that I would do anything for and someone that I would do anything to be with...someone that needs me to think the best of them and someone that needs my trust. Who needs your love and are you prepared to give it?