Love

 

What is "Love" for us teenagers? Well for one, we associate it instantly with having a relationship most of the time. This might be correct but it is a pretty shallow answer. Love isn’t just for Girlfriend and Boyfriend stuff; it also applies for our friends and most importantly our family. There are four basic types of love that we should know about. These are Storge, Eros, Philia and Agape. They might sound familiar to some of us because if you had high school Christian Living then you most definitely have encountered these four kinds of love. For you to better understand each here are short descriptions:

• Storge – The love that we give to our families. It is a deep and binding affection for someone who shares the same blood as us.

• Eros – The love that is present amongst lovers and romantic couples. It is a Beautiful expression of our love for someone. It may also have a sexual nature for married couples.

• Philia – The love we have for our friends. This kind of love is everywhere and abundant in our everyday lives.

• Agape – The selfless love we give to others. It is the kind of love that Jesus showed when he died in the cross for us. It is a total and unselfish love.

We encounter all these kinds of love in some part of our lives. No man or woman in the face of the earth can with stand a life without love. I mean, is there a sane person that would shun away from a loving or love filled environment? I don’t think so. Now, I would like to pose a question to you regarding these types of love; this would be “How do we know if we are giving the proper kind of love to a certain person?”. My main concern in raising this question is for the Eros love. Let’s face that fact that us youth may have tendencies to be blinded by love. Love in general is good, but it becomes bad when we apply the wrong concepts to it. Like in sex, it is not enough that since we have Eros love for our girlfriend or boyfriend, or God forbid someone we just met randomly, that we can already do it with them. It just doesn’t follow. We should always remember that sex is a sacred act that is reserved for married couples only. There is no exception to this. Sex outside of marriage is a grave sin and so we must always be careful with how we show love to the people around us.




Sources:

• http://www.suite101.com/blog/briantubbs/the_four_kinds_of_love
• http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs30/f/2008/044/c/4/Love_is____by_Kelsea_Kismet.jpg