8a. Charity never faileth
When I first thought about what angle I would take when writing about this verse, I was completely stumped. How can you say love never fails when I love Michael so much but there are many times that I fail him. So I thought that I would write about how God’s love never fails but people’s can/will. But then I had a thought, it’s not the love that fails, it’s the people that fail at showing it or acting it out!
True love never fails. That’s why we still love our kids after they disobey. That’s why we still love our closest friends after the fight. That’s why we still love our mates when they let us down. If there was no love, those downfalls wouldn’t hurt, but they do because we care.
Real love is a lot different than the kind we see in movies or hear about in stories. It’s not all fluff and rainbows and perfect harmony. Sometimes you don’t feel loving towards the other person because you are frustrated or annoyed but in your core, you know you do still love them. If love went away every time something went wrong, no one would ever be able to stay married. Life happens and mistakes are made but the love that is real doesn’t depend on the situation to be perfect. It still exists under all the stress and hurt, you just have to find it by releasing your pride and being forgiving.
People you love will fail you and you will fail people you love but the love isn’t the problem! I find that really comforting to think about. Can you imagine how even more messed up this world would be if love depended on human emotion??? Being in love is an emotional experience but love is not an emotion. Love is a choice. A choice to care for someone more than you care for yourself.
It’s easy to act out your love when everything is going well and the other person is making you happy. But when the going gets rougher, love becomes more of a fact than a verb. Still there, but not externally active. The biggest challenge in marriage or really any relationship is to keep your focus off yourself and towards the other person so that your love stays a verb. It doesn’t matter if they “deserve it”, if we only got what we deserved, we would have no hope of heaven. All that matters is that you look outside of yourself and continue to actively put your love into motion.
It’s always there, somewhere…it never fails!
