Hey Everybody,
I had an interesting discussion with someone recently regarding "What is the difference between love and infatuation?"
Yes, I know the Bible passages, particularly I Corinthians 13:4 ("Love is patient, love is kind...") Of course, our first frame of reference should always be God's Word, but the interest in my threads and posts are always in people's own personal real-life applications. In other words, yes, God says X, Y, and Z... so tell me what that means for your own life, and how you've applied it personally, please... don't just quote a passage and then give me a mumbo-jumbo of cookie-cutter or generic answers (which has frustrated me all my life, as I grew up in Lutheran schools.)
About a year ago, I had a guy friend I'd known a few years declare to me that he was "totally, completely, unabashedly head-over-heels in love" with me and would put a ring on my finger the next day if I'd be willing. But in all honesty, something just didn't "feel right", and the Bible tells us to bring every thought into captivity... when I prayed about this... I believed that God was helping me understand that what he felt was an infatuation and not real love.
My friend and I argued over it for a few months because he kept saying, "Well if you like such-and-such qualities about me, why don't you LIKE me?" Something just didn't add up in my heart though, so I decided to hold where I stood.
Within a few months... he made a very dramatic effort to tell me, "I'm really sorry, Kim, I don't know what I was thinking, I don't know why I said those things or thought I felt that way about you because now I realize I don't..." because he had moved on to the next girl. Yeah, it didn't exactly feel too great to be told all these supposedly flattering things only to hear, "Oops, my bad, didn't mean it, you're not all that important anyway," but I'm glad God helped me so that I didn't give in!
So... what have your experiences been with either the way you've felt or the way someone has felt about you? How can you tell when you really love someone, or when someone really loves you? How do you know when you really love a person or when you're just infatuated?
And how can you tell when the feelings are there just because someone is on a "high" of imagination of what you could supposedly be?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
I had an interesting discussion with someone recently regarding "What is the difference between love and infatuation?"
Yes, I know the Bible passages, particularly I Corinthians 13:4 ("Love is patient, love is kind...") Of course, our first frame of reference should always be God's Word, but the interest in my threads and posts are always in people's own personal real-life applications. In other words, yes, God says X, Y, and Z... so tell me what that means for your own life, and how you've applied it personally, please... don't just quote a passage and then give me a mumbo-jumbo of cookie-cutter or generic answers (which has frustrated me all my life, as I grew up in Lutheran schools.)
About a year ago, I had a guy friend I'd known a few years declare to me that he was "totally, completely, unabashedly head-over-heels in love" with me and would put a ring on my finger the next day if I'd be willing. But in all honesty, something just didn't "feel right", and the Bible tells us to bring every thought into captivity... when I prayed about this... I believed that God was helping me understand that what he felt was an infatuation and not real love.
My friend and I argued over it for a few months because he kept saying, "Well if you like such-and-such qualities about me, why don't you LIKE me?" Something just didn't add up in my heart though, so I decided to hold where I stood.
Within a few months... he made a very dramatic effort to tell me, "I'm really sorry, Kim, I don't know what I was thinking, I don't know why I said those things or thought I felt that way about you because now I realize I don't..." because he had moved on to the next girl. Yeah, it didn't exactly feel too great to be told all these supposedly flattering things only to hear, "Oops, my bad, didn't mean it, you're not all that important anyway," but I'm glad God helped me so that I didn't give in!
So... what have your experiences been with either the way you've felt or the way someone has felt about you? How can you tell when you really love someone, or when someone really loves you? How do you know when you really love a person or when you're just infatuated?
And how can you tell when the feelings are there just because someone is on a "high" of imagination of what you could supposedly be?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
