You Give Love A Bad Name

Here's the second synopsis of my church's new series, The Vow. So, I'll start off by asking, do you give love a bad name?

The correct answer is yes, we all do at times. Whether this is the type of love given to a spouse, a boyfriend/girlfriend, best friend, or even a parent. God says that when a person looks at your relationships, they should see His love being reflected through them. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says,

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

My pastor put this Bible verse on the projector screen and asked the congregation to replace the word love in these verses with their own name. That should be what each of us strives to be. To me, that is very hard. This is one of my favorite Bible verses, but it also very hard to maintain all of these aspects in every relationship. That doesn't mean that I can't try harder to do so though.

He stated the 3 A's that can destroy a relationship, but more specifically a marriage- 1) Addiction, 2) Abuse, 3) Adultery. Any of these three things can destroy a relationship, but doesn't mean they cannot be mended through counseling. The biggest threat to relationships is complacency. After a certain amount of time in a close relationship, the "fuzzy" feelings are starting to fade, and we tend to criticize the people we love most. Those criticisms, no matter how small, can eventually build up a wall between you and another person and slowly the only things we see in that person are the bad...we start forgetting all of the good times. I admit that I too, am guilty of this. It does build up a wall, but with forgiveness, the wall can slowly be torn down and our relationships can be re-ordered so to speak. I'll end with 2 quotes I found to be really encouraging from his sermon.

"It's not about the chemistry, it's about character."

"It's not about choosing the right person, but instead, choosing to be the right person."