My husband and I are resting up after celebrating the wedding of our eldest son this weekend. I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on love—what it is, what it requires, and how it shows up in real life. Not just romantic love, but godly love—the kind that endures, sacrifices, and seeks the good of the other person.
1 John 4 reminds us that “God is love.” But it doesn’t stop there. It goes on to say, “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” In other words, love isn’t just a feeling—it involves action. It involves sacrifice. It’s giving something costly so that someone else can thrive.
As my husband and I look back on our 30+ years of marriage, and now watch our son take this same step of commitment, I’m reminded how often love requires deferring to one another. It’s not always about the big decisions—sometimes it’s as simple as letting the other person choose the restaurant, agreeing to watch their favorite show (again), or letting them pick the paint color for the bathroom. These small moments of yielding, of saying “your preference matters to me,” become the building blocks of unity. Christlike love doesn’t need to be right; it wants to be united. It chooses alignment over winning an argument. That’s true in marriage, in parenting, and in every relationship where we’re trying to love the way God first loved us.
I’m praying this week that we’ll each look for moments to love in a 1 John 4 kind of way. Maybe it’s through a quiet act of service or a patient word spoken to a family member or friend. Maybe it’s simply letting go of your own preference for the sake of peace.
Love is costly—but it’s also the most beautiful thing we can offer.
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” i John 4:11.