I am reading in "The Greatest Thing in the World" book from my great grandfather again and thought I would share some additional insights.
I love this comparison of Paul's explanation of love with the workings of a prism:
"As you have seen a man of science take a beam of light and pass it through a crystal prism, as you have seen it come out on the other side of the prism broken up into its component colors - red, and blue, and yellow, and violet, and orange, and all the colors of the rainbow - so Paul passes this thing, Love, through the magnificent prism of his inspired intellect, and it comes out on the other side broken up into its elements."
The broken up elements being Love suffereth long, and is kind, etc. Pretty cool huh. I will share my favorite bits of soul and mind provoking elements:
"Love is patience...is passive; not in a hurry; calm; ready to do its work when the summons comes...understands, and therefore waits"
"Where Love is, God is. He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God. God is Love. Therefore love."
"Humility - to put a seal upon your lips and forget what you have done...Love even hides from itself. Love waives even self-satisfaction."
There are nine elements in all.
Three moving thoughts for your day. Love is so big and so encompassing that to understand it is understand God. I don't know if we will ever really get there in this life. It surely has levels. The deeper we go into it the closer we will feel to our Heavenly Father.
We are all wanting to feel this Love. We are all thirsting for this Love. Whether it be through our friendships, spouse, family, music, movies, books, drugs, sex, food, etc. We are wanting to feel that deep feeling of something in our soul. I find that it is not automatic or easy to achieve. It takes work and it takes knowing yourself. Each of us is unique and, I believe, feel love through different things. Love is somewhat customizable to the individual. Although there are underlying principles that apply to all. The goal for all of us is to understand how to achieve this Love for ourselves. Once this is achieved, at least to a small degree, our second goal will be how to help others experience it.
Yes Love is simple but not really. Love is a lot more than what I think it is. Probably certain elements of Love are simple but to truly understand and feel it takes a lifetime of concentration and awareness.
That is my philosophical thought of the week. Let us all Live it, Feel it, and, of course, LOVE it.
I think it is sweet that you want to better understand love and how it works. When I think of how charity is the pure love of Christ, the prism idea makes sense to me. Charity (the pure love of Christ) passes through the prism (which could be an individual soul) as the many elements described in Moroni 7:45. Also, it says that we ought to pray to be filled with this love, or that we may BECOME love. Then bestowing it upon others is effortless and a part of who we are and all we do. So, WE are like a prism striving to receive the beam of pure love from Christ, and as we receive it, can cast its many elements forward. Cool. Deep. Keep writing. I like it.
ReplyDeleteI think it is sweet that you want to better understand love and how it works. When I think of how charity is the pure love of Christ, the prism idea makes sense to me. Charity (the pure love of Christ) passes through the prism (which could be an individual soul) as the many elements described in Moroni 7:45. Also, it says that we ought to pray to be filled with this love, or that we may BECOME love. Then bestowing it upon others is effortless and a part of who we are and all we do. So, WE are like a prism striving to receive the beam of pure love from Christ, and as we receive it, can cast its many elements forward. Cool. Deep. Keep writing. I like it.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. I love the line: "The goal for all of us is to understand how to achieve this Love for ourselves. Once this is achieved, at least to a small degree, our second goal will be how to help others experience it. " Very insightful. One would think that we naturally know how to love ourselves, but that surprisingly is a challenge.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted you to know I am giving the chastity lesson in Young Womens this Sunday and I using this idea of the prism to help teach about what true love it! Thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome that you can use this analogy. I thought it was such a unique way of presenting the idea.
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