Beyond Sunday / February 7, 2023

What is love?

As Valentine’s Day (a.k.a. the feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius) approaches, Nicole and Rakhi discuss the true nature of love, given to us first by God through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and lived out in our day-to-day lives. They explore how the Christian demands of love live in contrast with the world’s expectations of love, in many ways, and share from their own experiences, how they strive to love their spouses and children, according to those demands. They close with some words of wisdom and encouragement with fellow parents striving to do the same.

Show Notes

(02:39) Rakhi and Nicole discuss their Valentine’s Day plans and the approaching memorial of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. They break open the topic of what love is, not in the Hollywood or romantic sense, but love from a Christian context, highlighting the sacrificial nature of it.

(06:14) They discuss the ways married couples are called to die to themselves and share their own experiences of how they have experienced this in their own marriages.

(09:25) They start to unpack the way the world presents marriage, in contrast with what marriage is, in reality: more than a feeling, a call to self-sacrifice, and a means of sanctification. They confront the reality of broken marriage, as well. They discuss the importance of strong married couples to witness to others within community and how isolation can be dangerous for married couples.

(13:53) Rakhi shares how she sees real love portrayed in the movie Beauty and the Beast. Nicole ties their discussion into last week’s episode, emphasizing the importance of understanding ourselves and our spouses’ unique gifts and love languages and modeling for our children how to love each other intentionally, according to those differences.

(18:28) They discuss the importance of ongoing discernment and adapting in love according to family members’ needs and life circumstances. They also address the reality that human love is imperfect, but that Jesus provides grace to transform our love to make it what our families’ need.

(20:20) Listeners are left with the encouragement to ask God for guidance and strength in loving the people that are in their lives and some creative ideas to express love intentionally on Valentine’s Day.