Love

I love my Institute class. This week we talked about true love and its characteristics. Our teacher talked about 3 different kinds of love. 1-Agape: unconditional or Christlike love, given with no thought of getting anything in return. 2-Philia:friendly or brotherly, having the ability to communicate with one another by understanding each other's words and actions. 3-Eros: affection or physical part of love, developing this kind of love is easy for most people, but is the type that is twisted most often by Satan. An Eros foundation of love will not last unless agape and philia are apart of the foundation.

Scriptures we talked about that defined true love were Matt 6:24, Romans 8:35,39, Ephesians 5:2,25,33 and D&C 42:22-23.

President David O. McKay
“‘Well,’ you may ask, ‘how may I know when I am
in love?’
“. . . George Q. Morris [who later became a member
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, gave this
reply]: ‘My mother once said that if you meet a girl
in whose presence you feel a desire to achieve, who
inspires you to do your best, and to make the most
of yourself, such a young woman is worthy of your
love and is awakening love in your heart.’
“I submit that . . . as a true guide. In the presence of
the girl you truly love you do not feel to grovel; in
her presence you do not attempt to take advantage
of her; in her presence you feel that you would like
to be everything that a Master Man should become,
for she will inspire you to that ideal. And I ask you
young women to cherish that same guide” (“As
Youth Contemplates an Eternal Partnership,”
Improvement Era, Mar. 1938, 139).

Elder Marvin J Ashton said, "True love is a process. True love requires personal action. Love must be continuing to be real. Love takes time. Too often expediency,infatuation, stimulation, persuasion, or lust are mistaken for love. How hollow, how empty if our love is no deeper than the arousal of momentary feeling or the expression in word s of what is no more lasting than the time it takes to speak them."

I am beginning to figure out what real or true love is. Christ knows, cares, and is sincerely concerned about my welfare. I think of the scripture in John 4:19..."We love Him, because He first loved us." True love can be summed up in one word-Selflessness.