Love Is Not Self-Seeking

One of my all-time favourite quotes from a Disney movie, is what Olaf says to Anna about love in the popular film, 'Frozen': "“Love … is … putting someone else's needs before yours. Like, you know, how Kristoff brought you back here to Hans and left you forever.” Olaf truly hit the nail on the head when describing love in this beautiful scene. Love puts someone else's needs before your own. In other words, love is not self-seeking.

In a marriage, a couple should be thinking about their spouse's needs and desires above their own. By nature, we're all selfish people, and sometimes it's very hard to give up our own wants to please others, and we can really struggle to put ourselves out in order to help the other person. But true love is not inward focused. Love doesn't consider oneself above another. Love puts others first.

It can be tough to give up our own desires for the sake of pleasing the other person, but love will do this anyway, as it seeks to bring joy and happiness to others and always wants the best for them. This can be demonstrated in a variety of different ways, from small things like giving up your own time to help the other person with their project or a job they need assistance with, to seemingly bigger things like going without the item you wanted so badly in order to use that money to purchase something else for your loved one that they need or would like. Whatever it may be, when faced with the situation, you will know what it is: just stop and think how you can bless that other person in your life, and choose to put them first above yourself.

I'm not saying that you can never do anything for yourself, not at all. But when you have the opportunity to overcome the selfish desire to put yourself before your spouse, just pause and think before you act, and choose love - the kind of love that isn't self-seeking, and that wants the best for the other person and desires to bless them.