love in it's purest form.

I've been getting so much revelation about love lately that it's crazy!

Love is selfless, real love is anyways. If you don't know how to be selfless, you won't know how to love, you can't learn to love. I used to hear the phrase, "You can't love someone else if you don't know how to love yourself." I would assume it as true, even accepting it as something I needed in my life, but I never understood it. I'm beginning to.

You can't love someone else unless you love yourself because love is selfless. If you don't know how to love yourself you'll be looking for others to give you such affirmation that can only be acquired in Truth of who you are. You are asking someone to affirm you and meet your needs, which isn't selfless at all for them. It is to say, "Love me if I do this...if I do this, you'll love me! So I'll be what you want so that you will love me!" You are allowing love to be conditional in the other person. For you to love yourself would mean that you understand who you are and you ask others to love you for who you are. It also means that you have no expectation on them, they do not have to be something or match up to something to gain your love. When they do something to wrong you, you don't instantly hate them or feel completely wronged because you learn to love selflessly. Yes, hurt is there, but a love that is so completely deep is the foundation that ties the two of you together. You stop thinking about the hurt that has been done to you and start thinking about the other person, because you know you are whole enough to get back up and love someone else.

Oh man, love is something else all together. Perfect love casts out fear. Fear is a result of lack of trust. A lack of trust comes forth from being unsure or unsettled. When you love yourself, you won't be fearing if the other person loves you or not. You are whole and they are whole. Sefless love casts out fear because you don't have to worry if the other person is looking for their own gain or not. Once knowing that this is what you are looking for when arguments or hurt comes, when selfish gain is being brought into the picture you will be able to point to it - saying, "This is the problem and this is the source that it's coming from."

So when hurt comes, when people wrong you or hurt you, you can stop and say, "Hey, I love you." Not because you are okay with the way they are harming you, but because you honestly love them regardless. Instead of being stung with the lack of affirmation you stand strong knowing who you are. Yes, it hurts, but hurt brings healing which brings growth. Love is a risk because you don't always know if the other person is being selfless with love the way you do. It's a risk for the other person because they don't know if you are always going to be selfless either. It's a risk to trust, but it's worth it. When you are able to rise up past the wrong, you truly do see the big picture and you are able to see them in a different light, with hurts of their own. Selfless love brings forgiveness.

It's a beautiful thing, love. It's so full and so pure in itself.

Mmm...I could go on but I will rest in that...the beauty of simplicity, the beauty of laying down your life for someone else, your needs, your wants, your selfish ambition, the beauty in loving.