Chapter 24—Love in the Home
[
See Chapter 32, “Infatuation and Blind Love.”
]
Source of True Human Affection—Our affection for one another
springs from our common relation to God. We are one family, we
love one another as He loved us. When compared with this true,
sanctified, disciplined affection, the shallow courtesy of the world,
the meaningless expression of effusive friendship, are as chaff to the
wheat.—
Letter 63, 1896
(
Sons and Daughters of God, 101
.)
To love as Christ loved means to manifest unselfishness at all times
and in all places, by kind words and pleasant looks.... Genuine love is
a precious attribute of heavenly origin, which increases its fragrance in
proportion as it is dispensed to others.—
Manuscript 17, 1899.
(
Sons
and Daughters of God, 101
.)
Love Binds Heart to Heart—Let there be mutual love, mutual
forbearance. Then marriage, instead of being the end of love, will be
as it were the very beginning of love. The warmth of true friendship,
the love that binds heart to heart, is a foretaste of the joys of heaven....
Let each give love rather than exact it.—
The Ministry of Healing, 360,
361
(1905).
[212]
Affection May Be Pure but Shallow—Affection may be as clear
as crystal and beauteous in its purity, yet it may be shallow because
it has not been tested and tried. Make Christ first and last and best in
everything. Constantly behold Him, and your love for Him will daily
become deeper and stronger as it is submitted to the test of trial. And
as your love for Him increases, your love for each other will grow
deeper and stronger. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory” (
2 Corinthians 3:18
).—
Testimonies for the Church 7:46
(1902).
Love Cannot Exist Without Expression—As the social and gen-
erous impulses are repressed, they wither, and the heart becomes
desolate and cold.... Love cannot long exist without expression. Let
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