Many couples include in their marriage ceremony 1 Corinthians 13, what love is. “Love is patient, kind, it protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres…” and that is all good and wonderful. However, it should also be included in the lives of those who choose not to go the marriage route; it still applies; after all a relationship is a relationship; and love is love.

But what happens when things do not pan out after the love bug’s bite fades to a scar, the itch of passion has been soothed and the romance blinders come off? It has been said that love is blind; and maybe it is, because now our perfect person is slightly less so, as is the pleasing personality that first attracted us. We are no longer the center of attention, the object of affection, the beauty of the beholder. We are, alas, merely human, and our partner will continue to love us despite our human failings…or not.

Here is what love is not: love does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil and never fails. Never fails? you say. That’s right…never fails, because love accepts our failings and idiosyncrasies, and makes allowances for what was not apparent in the infatuation stage. Love does that..if it doesn’t…it isn’t love.

Love is patient, love is kind, love trusts, love hopes, love perseveres.

Love is the antidote for what love is not.