Love... Nothing is Greater Than This

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 ...

-Corinthians 13:4-8

Love never fails. As my parents’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary arrives, I have been thinking a lot about my own love life – or let’s be honest: lack thereof. I have also been thinking a lot about love itself: what it really is in the romantic sense, if it’s meant for everyone (including me), and how to know if you really have it when it’s there. Ever since I returned home for the summer a week before their big anniversary, I’ve been trying to figure out the answers to these questions as I look at my Mama and Daddy and how they interact with each other. As I continue to look at them, however, I notice that any outsider would probably never guess that their twenty-fifth is coming up next week. They are entirely too focused on my brother, sister, and me to be talking about any big plans. I then reminded myself that they have always taken more pride in what they consider their greatest accomplishment – the family that they created – than in themselves.

Love is the arms that are holding you. Because of their love for each other, my life has been filled with unending happiness. It’s not the kind of happiness that you’re simply reminded of when you return to a specific place or look at an old picture. It’s the kind that you can still feel just by closing your eyes and reminiscing on that particular moment, like seeing my Mama and Daddy stand up and cheer for me at all of my dance recitals and cheerleading competitions, listening to both of them tell me how proud they were of me when I graduated from high school, and having them both hold me in their arms as they hugged me goodbye after moving me into my dorm.

Love does not run. Love does not hide. I know that my parents would continue to do those same things for me even if they were no longer together, but having both of them cheer me on together as a team always puts a bigger smile on my face and further encourages me to keep doing my best. That’s why I will forever admire the vows that they have kept to stick together as that same team that they formed nearly three decades ago. Just like any other “team,” they have stuck together through thick and thin. Through every obstacle that my siblings and I have thrown at them and every challenge that they have faced outside together outside of our home, they have conquered it all. All of my favorite sports teams have lost games and have acted like less than a team at some point, but my parents have always acted as one. My high school football coach once described a true team as having “one heartbeat,” and that is exactly what my parents have.

Love is the place you will fly to. I recently had one of my close friends’ grandparents pass away. Next month would have been his and his wife’s sixtieth wedding anniversary. When I told my parents this, Mama said that his wife probably won’t live much longer, because when you’re together that long, it is nearly impossible to live without your significant other. As I was listening to Mama tell me this in my parents’ bedroom, a quote by Winnie the Pooh popped into my head that goes, “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live a day without you.” While there are a few people in this world who I couldn’t imagine living my life without, I would never dream of wanting my life to end simply so I could be with that other person. But this was when I got a much deeper sense of what true love really is: wanting to be with that person you love, no matter where that may be, and not only having that person on one side, but having the One who created your love on the other.

Love after all matters the most. Twenty-five years ago today in 1986, two people began what has become the most important thing in my life: my family. Mama and Daddy: your faith, your commitment, and, most importantly, your love to God, to one another, and to our family encourages me everyday to be a better Christian, daughter, sister, friend, and person. You have shown me what true love is and how to show it to those who I care the most about. I know you will continue to bother me about meeting guys and finding someone to date, but I am only putting that off because I have such high standards for a relationship… Standards set by you.

Love Never Fails

by Brandon Heath

Love is not proud

Love does not boast

Love after all

Matters the most

Love does not run

Love does not hide

Love does not keep

Locked inside

Love is the river that flows through

Love never fails you

Love will sustain

Love will provide

Love will not cease

At the end of time

Love will protect

Love always hopes

Love still believes

When you don’t

Love is the arms that are holding you

Love never fails you

When my heart won’t make a sound

When I can’t turn back around

When the sky is falling down

Nothing is greater than this

Greater than this

Love is right here

Love is alive

Love is the way

The truth the life

Love is the river than flows through

Love is the arms that are holding you

Love is the place you will fly to

Love never fails you

Listen to "Love Never Fails" by Brandon Heath