What is love to me?
Love to me is God.
Abba like I fondly call Him is the definition of love,
Because He gave up His Son Jesus so that I can have life.
There’s no higher demonstration of love than this.
It is the burning love that flows from ABBA’s heart that sets us ablaze to become passionate for Him and live our lives in service to humanity without asking for anything in return.
Love is loyal and trustworthy.
Love is a state of being in Christ Jesus, and that is the purest form of love.
Love is serving one another without agenda’s or hidden motives.
Love places value on everyone, regardless of your status in society, race, religion, age or gender.
Love is respectful.
Love gives and amplifies your voice.
Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all.
It refuses to be jealous when blessings come to a friend or sister especially when you are in your own deepest season of need.
Love does not brag about one’s achievements or inflate its own importance.
Love does not have negative vibes and it is not toxic.
Love always create and maintains a healthy atmosphere that allows and encourages people to thrive and become who God created them to be.
Love reveals your identity in Christ.
Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor.
Love is not easily irritable.
Love is abundance and takes away the scarcity mindset.
Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place.
Love abhors injustice, but rises up and speaks up for the voiceless.
Love is endlessly and unconditionally committed.
Love is demonstrated by feelings or passion and is palpable.
Love is benevolent
Love is living peaceably with all men as much as it depends on you.
Love will hold you up in the darkest seasons of life, in cases of clear maltreatment,
Love heals your heart and gives you a fresh start with purpose and clarity.
In conclusion, love reveals your true identity, how you are known in heaven.
It is from this identity that you can live a life that has eternal value.
It is in knowing love Himself that you can live a successful life, receive your healing and have a successful marriage, raise children according to God’s will.
Love is what enables us to submit to one another and prefer one another.
This love (the God kind of love) should be rock on which our lives and marriages should be built on.
To My Darling Husband!
To my friend, my greatest cheerleader, my discipler, my lover and the husband of my youth, I love you, I really really do love you.
Thank you for loving me as yourself not for yourself.
You have given me wings to fly and to become all that Abba created me to be, I am grateful.
Besides the gift of Jesus Christ, you are the best gift to me that keeps on giving.
You have stacked up my spine so much and have allowed me shine so brightly, thank you.
If there is another life, I will be the one to propose to you, because I wouldn’t want to take the chance of missing doing life with you again.
I LOVE YOU,
Your Jewel
What love means to me
What love means to me is that holistic living in peace and harmony wrapped in unconditional interpersonal deepest affection from the depth of my soul.
Let me break it down to practical steps as it relates to my personal experience as a wife, lover and best friend to my one and only beloved soul mate and husband, ordained just for me.
Love conquers hate, Love does not count wrongs, Love celebrates and elevates, Love endures, Love never gives up, Love inspires hope, Love conquers pain, Love is open minded, Love supports fully without expectations, God is love and if we believe in God, we need to model His love to others.
In my several decades on this earth, my experience of true love I gave and receive has been my super power that has helped me stay focused and persevered in my journey of life. For those who know me from birth, they can attest to the world class agape love showered on me by my outstanding father, caring and prayerful mother whom I do my best to model up till today. When life shows up and I need to go through various seasons in my life, Love has been a common denominator in my recipe of living triumphantly to the glory of God.
As a mother, professor and mentor to many locally and globally, genuine love transcends critics and fuels your energy and passion to DO MORE for others and BE MORE so as to remain a useful vessel and great channel of blessing.
Honestly, I wear love as an aroma in my soul, all near and dear to me can attest to that. I celebrate and express my love daily to my husband as he is so deserving of this for enabling me to live my life full just like my father had it planned. I know my parents smile down on him with gratitude for his love for me and for our children. So, in honour of Valentine’s Day as a global lover’s day, I am freelancing this poem in his honour and I know our adult children would say a poem from mum, not surprised so here it goes:
Darling Hubby!
You demonstrate consistent love always
A honourable man with a heart of care and bundles of love kit in your heart
Allowing and supporting me in my career as my lead cheerleader strengthens our bond
You are my bestie and lover for life
Let’s age gracefully together in good health, peace and wealth as we continue to serve and impact the world.
Much love always,
Your Arike,
Remi Duyile
What does love mean?
Love is a funny thing. It can make a moment feel like a lifetime, and a lifetime feel like mere moments. We love, believing in forever and if we are to do so, our love must endure through the immense growth that we experience over the course of our lives.
For me, love is, therefore, fundamentally an act of generosity – it is to share yourself with another, through changing seasons and all.
For this reason, I think it would be impossible to speak of love without beginning with self-love – the gift of ourselves is, after all, only as precious as how we treat it.
In a culture which can at times encourage endless selflessness and sacrifice, this may not be the most popular assertion. However, I firmly believe that we are not of much use to our loved ones if we ourselves are burnt out and miserable.
I believe that my family deserves the best version of me – the woman who I get to be when I am pursuing my vision, grounded in my faith, and tending to my emotional needs.
I wake up every day determined to love myself deeper so that I can be that woman for those that I love. I know that when I am happy, my relationships can flourish because they come from a place of love and not emotional dependency.
Read also: Everything I did, I did for Love
In today’s society, we are sold a lot of scripts for love, but I feel that one of the most harmful one can be the fairy-tale. Generally, a damsel, we are told, is waiting incomplete to be saved by a spouse. The reality is that this is not love if you are broken going in, there’s no magic wand which will save you. Love, though less sensational is far more fulfilling. It is years of building yourself, to prepare to build with someone else.
I know that I am complete, I am capable, and I am valuable. From this position, I am assured that my marriage is built on love because we have chosen each other, and each day we wake up and choose each other all over again. Though this kind of love may not have the drama necessary for a Hollywood blockbuster, but it makes for a long and healthy marriage.
Appreciating my Hubby!
Leke, you are a beacon of light and hope for our family. You have made me believe in the true essence of love which is about selflessness and compromise. When we decided to embark on this journey of the ‘’unknown’’ based on loved and shared vision, I was naive and didn’t expect the highs and lows, successes, and failures.
You have loved me at my best and my worst and for this I am thankful. We are still standing and continuously working for the relationship to continue its growth. You encourage me to flourish in my career while cheering me on. Even when faced with the storms of life, you have remained steadfast and committed. Your commitment to our love has made our sons and I assured that you are the best captain to steer us to safety. You have made me a better woman and a better wife, and I wouldn’t want to do life with anyone else but you. I love you and look forward to your continued companionship as we raise our sons and make a difference to our family, communities, and nation.
Love is experienced
Love is experienced in many ways at different times, in different places, to different people, and in varying circumstances. Some examples range from the deep instant emotional connection a mother has for her new-born baby to the unconditional love experienced by persons of the same family unit.
Other forms include the strong affectionate feelings, commitment, security, and trust spouses and all forms of relationship partners hold towards each other. We also have the sense of care, warmness, loyalty, and camaraderie demonstrated by friends. There is always a common theme of a strong feeling of attachment to or affection for another.
If you ask me what love means, I explain it by my personal experience of what love does not mean to me. Love does not mean the possession of the object of our emotion or materiality. It is not pride, envy, disrespect, self-centeredness, or any degree of covetousness and the biblical scripture makes this emphasis in 1st Corinthians 13:4-7 where it highlights the most authentic qualities of true love.
From my personal experience of love in different ways and at different times or seasons, I strongly believe that love transcends all of these varying emotions and needs to be driven by the highest form of intentionality and unconditionality.
Love means freeing one’s self of expectations from those we claim to love. For instance, although it feels great to be loved and appreciated, we should not expect others to love us back just because we love them first. And for me, the best way to demonstrate this is to love “despite” any flaws or limitations and not “because of” what I can get back in return be it affection or materiality.
Love also means continually building the best version of yourself so that you can inspire the same in others whom you love and help them be the best version of themselves too. Don’t you think the world would be such a better place if we all evolved our best selves at all times? Just imagine the good this could do for humanity.
The scripture also teaches us that love is kind. We can interpret this to mean that love means treating people with the same level of kindness we all desire to experience. Kindness is shown through our spoken or unspoken words or actions, and through how we listen to each other without judgments or criticism.
Life events and transitions could often challenge our experience of love because competing responsibilities and priorities affect individual energy levels and occasionally limit the ability to foster love.
Love demands making time for the ones we love and showing up for each other at these different times and seasons.
Finally, God’s unfailing love for humankind is the greatest example to reference in identifying an authentic form of true love where His grace and mercies is poured out freely for us at all times.
The moment we understand this most authentic form of true love, is the moment we can truly begin to understand life as a whole. Today and everyday, I am inspired to see love as an action verb which therefore mandates us to positively and intentionally action love, a call to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation despite all known human flaws.
My Darling Osereme!
In the spirit of St Valentine’s Day, I want to take this opportunity to celebrate my dear husband and best friend not only today but every day. Osereme, thank you for loving me the way you do, for being by my side through all the seasons of our 13years together, and for pushing me to put my best foot forward and evolve the best version of me at all times. Love you forever, DH!
God is love
Love for me is everything Christ portrayed and mirrored in His word. It’s a beautiful experience but beyond that, the word of God gives a more than accurate description of what love is and that is what it means to me.
Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance.
Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honour. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.
Dear ZEE!
Each passing day you’ve mirrored Christ’s standard of what love is and I’m at peace knowing that God gave me the best.
We all know that life’s challenges are not new to anyone, but with you, I’m certain that victory is assured in all areas of life. I’m so blessed to be your wife. I love you till eternity my king.
