Young Love and Relationships

Young Love and Relationships Everybody feels love at one time or another, be it a love for a family member or a friend. Some people fall in and out of love on a regular basis while others take time to find just the right one. Everyone experiences this differently. Love between two people is distinct and exceptional. Although being in love with someone is easy and free, love is still a powerful emotion that can build and destroy. Since majority of the youth in our society start with their first love and relationship at the age of thirteen, many are also fooled.
Many confuse true love with infatuation. Although this is not entirely a bad thing, still many are often caught in sticky situations. (i. e. Pre-marital Sex, Teenage Pregnancy, Heartbreak, Suicide) Objectively, Webster says that the meaning of true love is a sweetheart or a truly loving or loved person. Furthermore more, Webster also defines relationships as an emotional and sexual association between two people. As for me, I believe that true love and relationships are the ones that God continuously give us. In 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 (NIV), it is said that “Love is patient; love is kind.
It does not envy; it does not boast; it is not proud. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight on evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects; always trusts; always hopes; always perseveres. ” True love is often confused with romantic love (infatuation) since both are all consuming and overwhelming, and if teenagers are not guided well, things can spiral out of hand. But when guided and founded with the will of God, years would go by as love develops into a real and secure emotional.

The verse stated above shows what true love is really about. True love never asks for anything in return; it never gets tired of giving. But amidst all these, giving still has its boundaries. That is why everybody, mainly teens should know that unconditional love has nothing to do with sex, exploitation or subjugation. Right now, teenage girls around the world are getting pregnant because they thought having sex with their boyfriend proves love. But what did they get? Being left behind, an ounce of heartbreak and a baby to take care of at such a young age.
Was getting their lives destroyed worth the few hours of pleasure in bed? I believe not. However, some are pressured into marriage as a sense of responsibility, but statistics show that although things may start like a fairytale, ninety percent of the teens that get married due to unplanned pregnancy get divorced or separated within a p of six years. You see, there is a right time for everything, for real love waits for that. Love never fails to forgive and it sacrifices for the other, but these sacrifices should have its limits – one that would ensure that no one gets hurt.
Shakespeare, one of the greatest playwright and love advocate, compared romantic love to being intoxicated in his play “The Tempest”. Romantic love often clouds a person’s judgment causing him to be confused on what the right decisions should be. It is like drug or alcohol that it takes over all the person’s senses, somehow causing him to make many big decisions with all the wrong motives. Most of the time, lovers base their decisions on each other considering how they can be of help to each other. Together, they continuously grow emotionally and spiritually.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is a big difference between depending on each other for the better and not being able to live without the other. The latter is a mere infatuation or romantic love. For example, a person in a long term and serious relationship gets offered his dream job, but the job requires him to move to another country, thus leaving his partner behind. The person being left behind would probably force the other to stay and because romantic love can be really selfless, he would stay. And what if he chooses to leave? What would you do?
Would you stop living your life just because the other chose to live his dreams? In real love, both should be encouraging each other to fulfill their dreams whether or not they do it side by side or far away from each other. Love can wait. If two people are meant for each other God will make a way because the will of God can never be broken. He will be the One opening doors for the two persons to meet. Arnel Pineda once sang a song with the lyrics “too much love can kill you”, and indeed it can. In a relationship, be it just a fling or a serious one, we can never be sure if that relationship would last.
We are never sure if the person we are with right now is the person we are going to be with in the next ten or twenty years. And when we love someone too much, we believe that we cannot live life without him. That is why losing him may cause us to stop living our lives. This is not real love. Just like an old saying being passed around for centuries, “Too much of anything is bad. ” This proves that truly loving someone should never be too much because true love does not cause harm, but instead brings harmony. Furthermore, True love is selfless; infatuation is too much.
Since romantic love is extremely selfless, a person may sacrifice everything and simply live his life for the other. This is wrong because any relationship is not exceptional from conflicts. And to top it all, we don’t know for sure if this person we are having a relationship with, is the one we would last with. That is why a relationship should have a strong foundation with God. It has to continuously grow according to God’s commands and laws. We also have to be able to have something in our personal life to back us up. Something that would keep us busy if anything goes wrong with the relationship. i. e. Spiritual Lives, Family and Friends, School Organizations, Work)Loving and having relationships is really hard to understand. When our heart unites with another, we feel a strong connection being formed. But when the connection is cut without understanding, the results can be disastrous. (i. e. Suicide) These kinds of incidents can be avoided if we take time to reflect and slowly grow as wisdom and understanding comes. In our generation today, teens often rush into relationships without building a strong foundation to be able handle them.
A heart without enough strength to handle the trials of a relationship is like standing on thin ice forcing it not to break. But no matter how hard we try to stop it from breaking, it will crack. That is why, love and relationships should not be rushed because there are many trials and situations that only time can face and overcome. Therefore, losing someone we love should not stop us from living because there is someone better, destined by the will of God, to be with us. Love comes with a lot of perks, but at the same time comes with great responsibility and understanding.
There are numerous kinds of things a misguided love or relationship can cause, be it suicide, murder or pregnancy. These points must be taken into serious considerations to prevent people from committing the same mistakes over and over again. This is also for the youth to be more guided when it comes to loving and relationships because many young lives are at risk when it comes to an unguided relationship. That is why the youth should always be guided and must know all these responsibilities in order to have a good relationship, and of course, one that will develop to grow and last.
Moreover, love is one of the most amazing feelings a person can feel if used in the right way. And in the end, love will always be a powerful force. Whether we let it work its magic or try to repress it, love is still and always will be an inevitable force that binds us all. Source: Dictionary meaning of true love. Retrieved from: http://www. merriam-webster. com/ Bible Verse. Retrieved from: http://www. biblegateway. com/ (2013). Marriage. Retrieved from: http://www. pregnancyoutreach. org/articles/marriage