Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.
1 Peter 1:22 NIV
There was a time in my life when I believed that I could recognize true love because it was always characterized by exhilarating feelings, and the absence of strong emotions meant I was in the wrong relationship. But I now know that if we reduce love to emotion, it makes for a very unsteady relationship, because emotions, like the waves of the ocean, roll in and roll out. One moment they are here, and then the next they are gone. A wise woman acknowledges this so she doesn’t allow her fickle emotions to choose the temperature of her relationships. Instead, she chooses love by doing love. And while she is doing love out of commitment, she does not fear, because she knows that as sure as the tide rolls in and out, the pleasant feelings of love will return again, too.
Don’t be deceived by reducing love to feelings. If you do, your relationships will be tossed by the winds of every circumstance. But when you make love a choice, you will steady yourself and choose for yourself a firm foundation whereby the most difficult challenges cannot destroy love.
Lord, please forgive me for those times when I allow my emotions to drive my reactions in relationships. Please help me to pursue love by serving my loved ones. Thank You that the emotions of love often follow the actions of love. Amen.
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Today’s reading was adapted from Daily Wisdom for Women: 2017 Devotional Collection with permission from Barbour Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reading was written by Shana Schutte.