Love is Patient AND Kind

Love is Patient AND Kind

My main focus on this piece is Love is patient and kind.

Most times, we claim to be patient with our partners and the people around us, but the question is yes your love is patient, but is your love kind while and when patient? Many people are in their relationships and marriages because they are patient. Not because they are hopeful, but because they are patient. However, while they are in that relationship and marriage, they aren’t in any way form or manner kind-hearted. They aren’t loving. They aren’t giving. They aren’t forbearing with their partners.
Love is all encompassing. It’s a rainbow sort-of rather than just a colour. That’s why you can’t say the colour of love is just blue or the popular red, or grey or etc. The colours of love are more than the colours of a rain-bow.

Love isn’t rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. You may want to argue that the love talked about in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is Agape (unconditional, unmerited kind of love) and not eros (romantic and sexual love). Well, you may be correct, but don’t forget that for romantic love to be true and balanced and not lust or infatuation, it has to be founded on unconditional love. So to enjoy eros, one must first have and share agape.

Some persons love never gives up. They will stay in the relationship, no matter what. However, their love has lost faith, it ain’t hopeful although it is enduring through every circumstance. That’s why people who stay in their marriages because of their kids never have their marriages become better. They have lost faith and hope although they are enduring all and are patient till death. They are doing nothing more in the relationship or marriage but just trying to fulfill “…in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, till death do they part.” They are like the King of Israel who did all that was right in the sight of God but not with a perfect heart (2 Chronicles 25:2).
Friend, that’s not how we ought to love. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is patient AND kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud. Are you kind while being patient with that man or that babe? Are you?

Yea, your love may not have given up yet, but does it still have faith and is it still hopeful? Nah, don’t tell me it is enduring every circumstances. It is not about enduring now. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

I used to be, perhaps, like you. No matter how a relationship turned bad, I would never quit because I wanted the quitting blame to be on my partner. So although I would lose faith and stop being hopeful and already prepared for a breakup, I would endure every circumstance and be patient. But that ain’t love. Nah, that ain’t love.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT).

If you aren’t ready to love wholly and fully, ejoor, quit the relationship. There are couples living together who haven’t had sex for more than 20 years. Although they live in the same house, the woman in all these years has never cooked for the man and if there is anything that they do together, it is nothing but public show during ceremonies and events. My senior was briefed of a case in Benin some years ago. The husband was 80 years old and the woman was 70. They wanted a divorce. The funny part was that some of the kids were sponsoring their dad for the divorce while others were sponsoring their mom. Crazy world.

I have worked with a client who her mother in-law was encouraging her to commit adultery just to give her son a kid, for they knew the man had issues with his reproductive health. I have seen a couple were the man refused sex and for two years, never had sex with his wife; the divorce proceedings was sweet. The marriage wasn’t even consummated.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (Galatians 5:22 NLT). In the above scriptures, kindness follows patience. So while you are patient, be kind.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance (1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT). In this just mentioned scriptures, never giving up and endurance is sandwiched with never loses faith and is hopeful. Now concerning your romantic life, selah on these things I have shared.

Always remember that it is your relationship with Jesus that makes your sex and romantic life sweet.

God bless Nigeria (good people, great nation). You rock!

Photo Credit: Fisayo and Dayo Samuel