Love Defined

It is Wednesday morning and I am feeling good. I have walked with my daughter, listened to a couple of podcasts, I am up and dressed and the sun is shinning.  I am listening to a new radio station for me, Shine FM 95.3. I have a busy day ahead but I want to start it with God.

Love Defined – This section in The Roadless Traveled by M. Scott Peck, will examine what lies in back of discipline – what provides the motive, the energy for discipline.  Love is described  as the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s self or another’s spiritual growth. We think of love as something we do for someone else, but Peck is saying that  we need to nurture self love in order to give love. Self-love and love of others go hand in hand and they are ultimately indistinguishable.    We can’t model spiritual maturity & discipline unless we practice maturity & discipline. We can’t give what we don’t possess. There has to be desire.  “will”, but that alone doesn’t do it. Will implies a choice. Going from wanting to do something, to  actually doing it.  When we love someone our love becomes demonstrable or real only through our exertion.  Love requires action.    The choice to love has to be made.

The Bible says in Matthew 19:19 “love your neighbor as yourself.” 22:37 “Love The Lord your God”. John 13:34, “A new command I give. you; Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  There are many, many scriptures in the Bible about love and no where does it say love if you feel like it. Remember as we read The Roadless Traveled, we are talking about our spiritual growth toward mental health.