Steemkids community word definition contest series WK 04|| WHAT DOES LOVE MEAN TO YOU? 50% PAYOUT TO @skids-charity by @pato84

Introduction

Warm greetings to all kids and kids lovers in the great community. I, @pato84, am highly elated to be participating in this great contest of word definition series which is targeted at understanding the meaning of Love by @steemkidss with 50%pay out to @skids-charity. You are warmly welcome to my blog.

What do you understand by love?

Love is multidimensional
You cannot use just one difinition to explain love because love mean different things to different people at different times in a given situation. Of course there are different kinds of love, so just one difinition may not be able to contain them all.
The type of love that exists between parents and their children is different from the love between friends.The love between a boyfriend and his girlfriend is different from that between siblings.The love between a husband and wife is different is different from the love between humanity and divinity that is between man and God.
As a matter of fact there are four different kinds of love, namely;
Philia/philos meaning brotherly love.
Storge meaning the needy love of a small child for his or her parent.
Eros/erotic love meaning the love that exists between a boyfriend and girlfriend. Its a conditional love.
Agape meaning Unconditional, sacrificial, selfless love.
As an advocate of domestic love, that is love at home or family love, I will be majoring on family love as this community is kids-related.
Having said all these above, the best and surest definition I can give to love as I understand it is that " Love is the the act of treating and caring for someone or others the same way you would treat and care for your self. Simply put, you must love your self first before you could be able to love another person. No wonder the biblical injunction says
Love your neighbor as yourself.So self love is key to loving others.
To further buttress my point on this precise definition, love is a strong affection, a profound and caring benevolent concern toward someone, an unfeigned emotional feeling of intense attraction to a person, a deep abiding likeness, an enthusiastic desire, a romantic feeling to a dear one.

Who can show love and why?

Anybody can show love and everyone needs to show love and be shown love as well. Love has no boundary. Love is not selective not preferential. In as much as the needs love the rich also needs love. Because God created in us an innate feeling that yearns for love. That is why even at infant age children know and understand when they are loved by their parents and when they are not.They need no sol meoothsayer to tell that. So why we need to show love and be shown love is because it is part and parcel of our being humans. We are creating to love unlike other creatures and animals.

Have you shown someone love ,how did you do that and how did the recipient feel?

On several occasions at several instances I have shown people love. The people I show love the most are the Orphans, widows, real beggars, aged men and women and those with physical disabilities like the blind, and lame. As a health worker and medical practitioner, I come come across people that needs love on daily basis, I give these aforementioned classes of people,free drugs, monitor their blood pressures and other free medications and they go home rejoicing and feeling love.
I remember an instance when a shivering old woman was rushed to me office without any money to pay for her medication. I administered injections that gave her instant relief and told her to go free of charge.This woman turned and asked me "my son are you the immediate younger brother of Jesus?" To her, it is only Jesus that can show such love freely to an old woman like her who had nothing whatsoever to offer in return. She, out of expression of her gratitude said "my son had it been I still have unmarried daughters I would have given you one to marry"
Also there was this orphan girl who dropped out from school at Junior Secondary School three(JSS3) and went to learn hairdreessing because there was no one to sponsor her. When I met her , I enrolled her back to school from JSS3 and trained up to 400level in University where she studied and graduated as a Business Administrator. Till date she is still appreciative of the love I showed to her. Today she is married with two kids but She will always call me and say, "sir Giddy you really gave me a future and made it brighter indeed you are my Destiny helper for without you I wouldn't have been where I am today.

Has anyone shown you love before and how did you feel when love was shown to you?

On the other hand so many people too have shown me love in an immeasurable way at countless times. To just mention one instance, there was the day I was traveling and my motorbike broke down in the middle of a bushy uninhabited high way. I lost hope that day because it was very late in the night. Some one from where only God knows came and helped me out, carried my bike in his car and brought me to the town where the bike was fixed the next day. In my own words I concluded and termed the person an angel of God.

Express your love to someone in a practical way

These are kids in my church and locality I took them to have fun at a relaxation and recreational centered and every one of them were happy. What about this woman who was sick and had no money I checked her blood pressure and treated her of Malaria. In the same vein , this little orphan girl was sick with high Malaria and typhoid fever. I treated her and she recovered and regained health.

Sharing my food in love with my fellow Steemians

Do you think love is a virtue that should be cultivated by all and be demonstrated in a practical way?

Yes! Of course every one needs to love just as every one needs to be shown love too. There is no exception as to who should possess the attribute of love. The bible says:

Owe no man anything but love.

And this love ought be a demonstrative and practical love. We need to practicalize the love we profess. The bible also says
For God so loved the world that HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON........"
So the weight of God's love for the world is measured and seen in His giving His only begotten son to come and die to save the world.
So when we truly love we must sacrificially give as well.
One of my favourite bible texts has this to says regarding practical love:

But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him.
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." 1John 3:17-18.

How did you learn to show love and where?

As with every other virtue, the first place I learnt , cultivated and exhibited love is none other place than my family. I cherish the words of a song writer by name John. H. McNaughton who said;

There is beauty all around when there is love at home, There is not in every sound when there is love at home. Peace and plenty here abide, smiling face on every side, time doth softly sweetly glide when there is love at home(Seventh-day ADVENTIST Hymnal. No.652)

Another word for love is charity and charity they say, begins at home.
So my parents showed us unreserved love while we were growing up and also taught us to love our siblings and extend same to every other person we will come across in life irrespective of the person's tribe, culture,race , religion or nationality. They told us that love is the only thing that is UNIVERSAL. So love is HOMEGROWN.
In the Bible also love is mentioned first among the fruits of the Spirit so it is far-reaching and all-encompassing. (Galatians 5)

How will the world look like if everyone cultivate this quality?

Our world will be a paradise. I mean it will be like the Edenic home of our first parents before sin entered and distorted the peace and serenity they enjoyed. Jesus said the summary of the whole commandment is
Love the Lord with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself"
So of all will follow and abide by this divine injunction and cultivate love there will be no killing, lying, cheating, kidnapping, wars, banditry, ethnocentrism, and so on. And this world will be a better place to live in because love is leading and ruling in our hearts.

Conclusion

I will conclude by highlighting some characteristic features of love.

Love is kind , patient,caring, tolerant, corrigible, considerate, forgiving. Love is not arrogant, does not hold grudges, is not envious, does not parade itself, is not puffed up, is not rude, does seek it's own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity.(1Corinthians 13).

Love is crucial to life itself. The truest test and proof of love is on how far we can go in loving our known enemy. And the truest way we can prove that we love our enemies is when they fall prey to our trap and we are in a better position to retaliate and avenge ourselves yet we spare them. We are son's and daughters of love ,Let love lead......

Cc:
@steemkids
@steemkidss

Best Regards
@pato84 8