Everyone is capable of loving. Yes, everyone can love, but not everyone can recognize love. Some people don’t even believe in it, and many people misinterpret other things for it. Some people run from it, and some create a life long search for it. Love is interesting in that it can not truly be bounded by one definition. In fact, the Ancient Greek translation for love has five different words and meanings for our one word “love”. Agape meaning, pure, ideal love, or “love of the soul”. Eros means passionate love, involving sensual desire and longing, or “love of the body”. Philia means practical love, and includes loyalty to friends, family, your community, etc. or “love of the mind”. Storge is natural affection love, like the love you have for your puppy, or the natural affection and love you would have for your child. Xenia means hospitality, it’s cordial and respect for others that you just met or could be a stranger; it’s the reason why your heart goes out to someone that you’ve seen on the news in a bad situation.

The way that I define love is “God is Love”. I feel that the more you know God for yourself, then the more you’ll understand love, and just as importantly, the lack thereof. And just as God is so great, that our minds can’t fully comprehend all of his greatness, the same is true for love. The Bible also defines love in I Corinthians chapter 13. Here’s a snippet:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Is it possible to love someone more than they love you? Yes! It happens all the time! In fact, God loves most of us a lot more than we are willing to love him back. In a intimate relationship however, this can be uncomfortable at the least or even detrimental. Everyone knows the saying “love hurts”, but I challenge that statement with “the lack of love hurts”. When two people love each other the same way, their expectations of love are the same, so they see eye-to-eye with how they want to be loved and how they want to love. When there is an imbalance of love in a relationship, there are issues. The expectation of love isn’t the same, so one or both partners aren’t being fulfilled. There is a lack of love somewhere, and that lack is what causes the pain. Never apologize for loving someone, because you can never love someone too much, but when they don’t return the love, it doesn’t feel good. It’s the lack of love that hurts, not the love you have for them.

For more articles about love and relationships please visit Some Piece of Mind. Some Piece of Mind is a collaborative site dedicated to healing our relationships through communication.

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