LOVE

As I delve into this topic I am reminded of I Corinthians 13...the basis of any of my thoughts is the word of God....God has been opening up his word and revealing himself to me in a very real way about the subject of LOVE..Godly, brotherly, and romantic. I've literally been in conversations with people and the Lord has taken me to scriptures to answer those questions...

LOVE- we all want it, need it, feel like we must have it, and this is not specific to male-female romantic relationships...we innately have a DESIRE to be loved and accepted..TRUTH...Some of us are suckers for romantic-LOVE tho!! LOL...we long for that 1 person to share our friendship, loyalty, innermost thoughts, and affections with...sometimes finding ourselves in fruitless quick fix relationships to try and remedy our loneliness or longing to be with the "ONE"...Even hoping Mr/Mrs. WRONG would magically transform into Mr./Mrs. RIGHT simply because they "love" us so much, and are willing to turn their lives upside down for us! Some of us wised up and realized how amazing we are and that we are just going to wait and not engage in relationships of the "emotion" with no commitment...and some of us are still on the hunt/quest to find him/her by any means necessary...even at the expense of being redundant or repetitious with our choices.

All in all after taking this 6 month hiatus and truly reflecting on who Nakiyah is and why she thinks the way she does etc. I came to a few conclusions:
1) I was a serious commitment PHOBE
2) I was still carrying pain from personal bad experiences &others' bad experiences(I guess mine weren't enough LOL)
3) I had lost faith in God's power/sovereignty/I didn't trust HIS will for my life
4)I'd forgotten who I was and all the great qualities I have

Okay so what solutions did God give me?? Cuz I desperately wanted to grown and learn from this experience and not just do it for the sake of saying I did it.
1) He had me reading 1 Corinthians 13 for a portion of this season in my life...cuz I had to get down the love of God first before I could tackle ..Romantic relationship issues in my life
2) After that...believe it or not he had me in Song of Solomon!! He had to show me that everything we need or want is in the word of God and he Had to restore my faith in GODLY relationships
3) Then he took me to Proverbs, which I actually just finished recently(with way more to study in there)He gave me jewels..I def suggest PROVERBS...you'll be changed forever!!

So many other things happened but all in all this is what God showed me abt LOVE:
-His love is unconditional & undeserved, however if someone wants access to my life(romantically) they have to show that they are worthy
-Any relationship(friendship, family, professional) requires first investigation(getting to understand the other party) identifying strengths&weaknesses, and working to encourage said parties to get better. The goal is ALWAYS to ENHANCE the relationship..not judge it, hurt it, belittle it, CORRECTION+LOVE=TRUST...if u need to correct it has to be under the above mentioned guide..it has to be done in LOVE
-It is a free gift to be given cautiously and purely..with no ulterior motives...If u find yourself constantly looking for validation then u have to check your motives
-That it is not elusive to me or anyone..one just has to have a ready heart to receive it..that means "it" and all that comes with "it"..One who wants to receive love must be mature and able to handle a malleable heart

There's more but I will stop here for now...God is still working on me...but he is making me into a "treasure" and using people to impart wisdom, knowledge, and love to me, so that I can understand God's concept of love even better.

I hope someone gets something from me sharing this....Let Love ABOUND!!!!!!!!!