This is one of the most interesting questions ever asked. This is one of the most difficult questions to answer because there is no worldwide accepted definition. This is a question that raises eyebrows and makes hearts beat faster. This is a question that is asked to reveal the true intentions of a person.
Do you love me?
How do you know when you are in love?
How do you know when someone is in love with you?
Why do people fall in and out of love?
Is love a feeling or an attitude?
Does love exist?
Do you believe in love at first sight?
Why do you love me? What does love feel like?
How should love make you feel?
Is love selfish or self centered?
Is love proud? Is love envious?
Is love required to build a happy marriage?
Does true love die?
Does love hurt?
These are a few of the questions asked about love but can we really understand how love works if we don’t know what love is in the first place. We have long believed this Hollywood version of love that involves immerse passion, butterflies in the stomach, roses in the garden, passionate sex, happy smiling couples and a happy ever after ending. Only if we knew the definition of love, only if we knew that love is work, only if we knew that love is not a mere feeling but a commitment. We have longed believed that love is a feeling and the one you love would never hurt you. When we get into relationships and the one we love hurts us or the love we have for the person begins to whine down instead of sticking to it as a commitment commands, we get out and move on simply because we don’t feel like it anymore.

I was on a radio show some weeks back and I was asked what I felt was the biggest problem with relationships and my answer was as immediate as the question was asked. I replied “the biggest problem with relationships is that people think love is a feeling when it is a commitment”. I have always believed that love was not a feeling but a commitment but one question kept lingering in my head. What’s the use of a commitment without a feeling? This question inspired me to reach out to more knowledgeable people to explain this phenomenon/thing/feeling/attitude called “love”. I scowered through articles and books until I came across the simplest and most understandable definition of love. Gary Smalley in his book “Hidden keys of a loving lasting marriage” revealed that they are at least three kinds of love namely; Companionship, Passion and Genuine love. In the subsequent articles, I will be explaining these three types of love in my own words and ways to find out the type of love you have for your partner.

Continuation: Companionship Love