“Love suffers long and is kind
Love envies not
Love flaunts not itself and is not puffed up
Love does not behave improperly
Love does not seek its own
Love is not easily provoked
Love thinks no evil
Love rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in truth
Love bears all truth, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things
Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
The genuine foundation of the union between a man and a woman is love. Before they finally decide on getting married, they must have had a relationship based on true feelings and care for one another. When the couple eventually gets married, it is that same love that would keep them together, their bond stronger than ever.
But marital problems arise when that same love that kept them so involved in one another becomes compromised. This problem might be due to the fact that some people no longer believe that love really exists. They come to believe that even the word ‘love’ is over-rated. The divorce rate in Nigeria has been reported to be increasing.
“Divorce rate has been found to be at an accelerated rate throughout the world. According to the Atlantic Book of facts 1997, there were 12,000 cases of divorce reported every year in Nigeria since 1975.” With this fact, it goes to show that many people are inclined to get married without realising the true sense of being in love.
Hence, reality goes back to the clear signs of love. The reason many people fail in their relationships is based on the fact that people thought they were in love. But the truth is that they never were. They were either overly obsessed with someone or crushing on a particular person. Therefore, for those who wish to put a clear distinction between love and infatuation, here is a list of the real signs of true love.
1. You suddenly become interested with the things that you used to detest: When you become interested with things you normally won’t be interested in, you find out that you start to do things to please the other person, even when you detest doing those things. This is a proof that true love does not seek just its own, but puts others they claim to love into consideration. In doing so, going the extra mile for the other person, even when it means doing things you won’t normally do on a normal day. However, this sign does not happen on an instant. This has to go into a process wherein you still hate to do what you despise, even if you are already in a relationship with that person. But as soon as you learned to love, everything will change. Things will seem brighter and every challenge seems easy to bear.
2. You learn to value the person you claim to love: This means, you start to place a huge importance on the person. The person will mean a lot to you, and you will do all it takes to make him/her happy, because your love towards him/her is kind and true.
3. You are in love if you can, with eyes open wide, accept the person that you love no matter what or who he/she is. Simply because love is not puffed up, that is; love is not proud and picky.
4. You are in love if you understand the person you care for the most: You are fully aware of what makes him/her tick, his/her weaknesses and strengths. And you never judge them based on their weaknesses, because love rejoices not in iniquity nor does love think evil.
5. You are in love if you are willing to sacrifice all with that special someone.
6. You never want to let go of that person you love, regardless of the situation or circumstance, because true love endures till the very end, and it never fails.