How does the world define love? Really think about that for a moment- the way love is portrayed in the movies, TV shows, and just in Hollywood itself. You always hear about hot, new relationships or divorces, but you rarely hear about the ones that stand the test of time. The ones that are built on more than attraction and similarities. The world defines love as something that comes and goes, not something that lasts and endures. 1 Corinthians 13 is the Bible’s definition of what love really is and it all begins with these words: “love is patient.”
Love is patient. The King James version of the Bible says that “charity suffereth long.” That puts patience in a whole new perspective, doesn’t it? Love is not something that can be tossed aside, but true, biblical love perseveres through the hardest times. It “suffers” long. Does that mean it is miserable? By all means, no! It waits. Psalm 27:14 says to wait patiently for the Lord. We wait on the Lord; we wait on Him to act and to move in our lives. All the while, we wait in His love and grace. That is a picture of how we should love. We wait, but all the while we wait in unconditional love. That is how we should love as parents with our children, as spouses in our marriages, and how we should love the world.
We would be nothing if God hadn’t waited for us to choose Him and His love. Why not wait on others? Wait with kindness, wait with grace, and most of all, wait in love.