Love like we're meant to

• A friend makes and effort to always avoid hurting your feelings.
• A friend rejoices in your successes and blessings with pure joy. 
• A friend does not compete with you or lord over you their own successes.
• A friend does not ever think of themselves as "better than you".
• A friend treats people you care about with love and respect. 
• A friend puts your relationship before their personal feelings and is always ready to give.
• A friend will forgive the "little stuff" and use gentle words to discuss the "big stuff"
• A friend relishes in the joyful/funny/fun memories you share but has amnesia when regarding your conflicts.
• A friend will always encourage you to do the right thing.
• A friend will ways be honest with you. 
• A friend always understands because they are naturally empathetic. 

(all instances of "friend" can be replaced with "spouse", as well) 

Let's make it a new year's resolution to love like we are meant to. :) 

1 Corinthians 13:4-12

New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes,what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.