Love isn’t overrated. It’s just hard to give
A quick glance at the majority of social media posts, blog and news articles released on matters of the heart, might leave a random observer with the conclusion that love, real love, as the bible and gurus throughout the ages have described it, doesn’t exist. The result in real life is a widespread attitude of “love is overrated.”
The idea that relationships are complex, and require more than romantic feelings and gestures to thrive is understandable. However, the idea that love is overrated is where the line is drawn. No other emotion, no other state of being, matches love’s ability to inspire selflessness, kindness, responsibility, and forgiveness. The statement “the ones we love hurt us most” might be sad, but it’s also a testament to this fact. Love enhances the human’s ability to endure. The problem isn’t with the emotion, it’s with our ability as people to give or receive it.
No one has a permanent answer or solution yet we feel these three truths will help the cause:
- Your heart is more resilient than you give it credit for
Heartbreaks suck. Especially if you invested your all into the relationship. Yet you always come back from it. It might take a while, but the next time you go into a relationship, you’ll be wiser and so you’ll choose better, you’ll leave your expectations behind and so you’ll learn to enjoy love for its own sake, with a person that deserves you. All it takes is time.
- Love is not always happiness
Love and happiness are mutually exclusive. Love is a willingness to be more than you are on behalf of another. This won’t always lead to happy circumstances, however there will be a satisfaction felt for helping a person you treasure.
- Love is not blind
Love is choosing to be vulnerable with your eyes open. Love transcends romance or infatuation; it’s defining quality is awareness. Awareness of the sacrifices being made, and of the nature of the person receiving the love.
- Love is more about you than your partner
It takes two to tango, in the end however, the art of giving and receiving love, are individual undertakings. No matter what your partner does to you or for you, if your ideas of giving and receiving love are fundamentally flawed, there will be issues. It goes vice versa. The most popular definition of love can be found in the bible, given by Paul the Apostle. It goes as thus: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered […] It keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
When these four truths are understood an accepted, maybe the people will have a better chance at finding and enjoying the benefits of love.
