Love is a Decision

I love C.S. Lewis’s corrective to our culture’s mis-definition and misunderstanding of “love”: “Love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; the state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people.” One place where I have seen true love lived out is between married people who have remained committed to each other through thick and thin, richer or poorer, sickness or health. . . through it all. I have also seen cultural “love” lived out as a temporary and fleeting emotion which is then used to justify divorce. Our kids need to grow up knowing the truth that sets us free and leads us into God’s Shalom in the midst of a culture telling them that “it’s all about you.” Expose your kids to the good example of couples living through the heartaches that sometimes come with the twilight years. Here are the words my dad used to drill into me: “Love is a decision.”