Lessons on the foundation of love| Post 1 | Love and freedom series

I came across this super fascinating reading piece that inspired me to share a bit about my recent discoveries about love. The article is titled Love in freedom by Gail Pheterson .

The combination of those two words "love" and "freedom", should be enough to make you uncomfortable.

I've tossed and turned with the concept of love for years;

I've reflected on my own experiences, and I've analysed those experiences of many others.

I've also come to understand a bit about this concept through prayer and meditation.

After reading the article by Gail Pheterson, I was persuaded to document my discoveries so that I can have a reference point when I seem to lose my way.

This first article looks at the foundational ideas that I have learnt about love:

• God is love

Before we can understand anything about romantic love, we need to take a step back to the author of love. If we want to learn anything about love, then it's essential that we understand that God is the perfect representation of perfect love.

God is where it starts, and God is where it ends.

• Love has only one job: to love

No fear, no questions, no expectations - only love.

There are many things that media and society have influenced us to think and believe about love. Some of these include seeking to know that someone will love you back before you make the choice to love them, another is, loving a person under only specific conditions.

One thing I recently learnt while studying this concept is that love can only do one thing, and that is to love.

We may again, start off by looking at God as a reference point.

We were in wrong standing with God, there was nothing for God to gain, and there was no guarantee that we would love/choose God back, yet still, God sent His only son to die for us all.

Love expects absolutely nothing.

For a while, I questioned why it was that that one time I was in love, I stayed long past the due date. I now look back at that time and I am able to show compassion to myself at the realisation that I only did what I had committed to do, which was to love.

• Love sets you free

There is no bondage in love. Love does not control. Love does not seek its own way. That is not the nature of love.

We see this in how God gives us free will and choice.

We have grown accustomed to seeing so much force and destruction in relationships that we have come to believe that that's the nature of love. We don't realise that love gives freely.

Summary

God is an example of what love ought to look like. Love has no conditions and is liberating.

The next few postings will dive deeper into love and freedom.