Many will first experience love at home – if it exists. A lot of people believe the taste of love one receives from home or the lack of it, will eventually shape their general perception or appetite for the act of love. After all, charity begins at home, and seeing how people communicate in their love language speaks tremendous volumes. A very vivid example is trying to take a piece of meat from a plate of food served to a meat lover who isn’t ready to give it up in the name of anything including love.
However petty or trivial the aforesaid may sound to you, the truth is if that person never understood the concept of love and unconditional giving for a greater good, the piece of meat will remain on the plate at all costs. Although we agree that “God is love”, we also know that due to the complexities that accompany humaneness, the interpretation and perception of love differ from person to person like the unique pattern of our fingerprints.
You must be wondering where am going with this. Let me break it down for you.
There is a looming problem with juxtaposing the love people often crave for, against the love available on the rugged streets of life.
From a young man’s perspective, many will find it difficult to argue against the opinion that finding true love these days is akin to searching for a mustard seed submerged in sand on the beach. It’s a process that requires God’s leading and a boat load of patience.
It might be just me but as a man, I feel seeking love is a herculean task because the expectations society has of men feels like a gift and sometimes a curse. Society has saddled the male gender with mainly provision and protection and a lot of men have wrongly taken it to hook, line and sinker. Whilst it is a thing of joy to provide and a great duty to protect, society has clandestinely tied the worth of men to those expectations alone. In many cases, basking under the zest of financial profusion adds great value to the individual.
Of course, money is a great tool used in getting things done; however, this has men going to all kinds of obscene lengths to get money because they believe its absence means they are valueless to everyone. Society is now filled with men who lack depth outside the conversations of provision of money and physical protection. We have created emotionless human ATMs and eventually, the obvious truth that money can’t pay for love or a happy union becomes apparent.
We all need to go back for thorough self-examination because we have all contributed to making “love” the most window-shopped supercar very few can afford. We have given love an unhealthy price tag meant for a certain social class.
As people of faith, the love of God and the love of our neighbor are the greatest commandments there are. We must remember:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends.
Love cannot be sold. Love shouldn’t be commodified. Love is not costly. God gave us love freely, why should we give others love with material strings attached to it?
Ogo loves writing on diverse subjects.
