We are re-posting the “Love-Is” posts we did back in the Spring of 2010. It is still one of our most popular series, and well worth revisiting. With Valentines Day only two weeks away, these posts will help us remember what true love looks like! It has nothing to do with a chubby cherub who goes around shooting arrows of love. 🙂

I remember growing up in the 70’s with a little cartoon that captured my teen-aged heart.  It was “Love Is…” cartoons by Kim Casali.  She created the strip as a way to express the love she had for her husband, Roberto.  It grew to be a famous symbol of that era when it was syndicated by The Los Angeles Times in 1970.

However, as cute as these characters are, they are only sentiments of a wife towards her husband.

The Bible gives us a more concrete definition of what love is, and it is found in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians:

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, endures all things. Love never ends.

Let’s consider the first one:

In examining my own heart, I realize how often I am not patient towards Tom.  I may ask him to do something for me, and if it doesn’t get done in the time frame I was hoping, I have a choice to make: will I show love to Tom by being patient or will I resort to becoming angry?

Or yet another example happened last December…I have a favorite perfume that was nearly gone, so I hinted to Tom hoping he’d buy me more for Christmas.  Since the perfume can only be purchased on-line; Tom found it only to discover that the perfume was on back order.  Christmas came and went with no perfume!

Around February I checked the website to see if the perfume was available – to my delight, it was!  I quickly told Tom, not knowing that he had already bought and received the perfume.  His face looked disappointed at my discovery as he said, “You’re impossible to surprise!”

I felt horrible; Tom was planning to surprise me for Valentine’s Day, and

my impatience spoiled everything!

Tom said a big temptation for him is when I am running late.  He is very punctual and loves to arrive anywhere at least 5 minutes ahead of schedule!  In the early years of our marriage I remember getting myself and our three children ready for Sunday service with a strong awareness of the ticking clock!  Tom, in a way to help me realize the countdown, would go sit in the car with it running as a way to encourage my punctuality!  Hardly, the patient husband; needless to say, this was a source of many arguments in our marriage.

Everyday we’re faced with temptations to be impatient.

Even last night we joked when I was impatient about the way Tom was using the remote control!  But, there is hope!  If the Bible tells us love is patient, we must look to it’s Author for help.  The Holy Spirit who is perfectly patient with us helps us in our weakness to grow so our marriages become a reflection of Him!

We’ve provided a few examples of what impatience looks like – what does it look like in your marriage?  How is God helping you to grow?