according to the children.... (adapted from Uncle Maurice)
Laugh break - What is love?
A group of children were asked the question "What is love?" Here are some of their replies. Which do you think were the best ones?
Question. What is love?
Answers.
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne, and they go out and smell each other." Karl (age 5).
"Love is when you tell a boy you like his shirt, and then he wears it every day." Noelle (7).
"Love is when you go out and give someone most of your French fries, without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy (6).
(There is a lot of truth in that because if you love someone, that means you want the very best for them. You want good things to happen to them, even more than you want good things to happen to yourself. So if you give someone most of your French fries, without asking for anything in return, that is an expression of your love).
"Love is when mummy gives daddy the best part of the chicken." Elaine (5).
(Another expression of love. 'Mummy' is putting 'Daddy's' needs before her own. Jesus told us to love others as we love ourselves. Everyone loves themselves. Do you hit yourself, lie to yourself, or steal from yourself? No, of course not! You all treat yourselves well. If you are thirsty, do you say "Oh I can't be bothered giving you a drink right now" ? No, you just give yourself a drink. In the same way that we are good to ourselves, we should be just as good to others).
"Love is when mummy sees daddy all smelly and sweaty, and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt." Chris (7).
Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and talk instead. My mummy and daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss." Emily (8).
If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend you hate." Nikka (6).
(A good answer. It is easy to be nice to people who are being nice to you, but very hard to be nice to those who are being nasty to you. But Jesus told us to "Love your enemies." Jesus wants us to be nice to everyone, even to those who are not nice back to us).
"There are two kinds of love, our love and God's love. But God made them both." Jenny (8).
(I think his is probably the best answer. The difference between human love and God's love is that human love is often conditional on the other person loving us back, whereas God's love is unconditional. Suppose you like someone, so start being good to them. If they are nice to you in return, you will carry on being nice to them - wonderful. But if that person is nasty to you in return, do you carry on being nice to them? Probably not. You probably won't want anything to do with that person anymore, or you may even start being nasty to them yourself. God's love is not like that. God's love is unconditional. He loves us because "God is love." He loves us even if we are nasty to others, Ignore Him, or even reject Him. These things all make God sad, but there is nothing anyone could possibly do that would ever make Him stop loving them. He always desires the very best for us).
