The sharing of human warmth and affection is something which we all desire and need. Loving and being loved is one of the staples of human existence. Although love and physical affection enhance each other, too often the concept of love is too narrowly defined and even misconstrued when one makes physical affection synonymous with love. It simply is not! The art of expressing love is a very broad, inclusive, endeavor.

To discover how to be really good at expressing love, we must look to God - the greatest of all lovers. God’s love for us is not regulated by our response. It is always reaching out towards us. God doesn’t love us because we are so loveable. God doesn’t need to love us. Rather, we are in need of his love. In sending his Son Jesus, God demonstrated what true love really is. True love is a willingness to give yourself to another person, not for your sake but for his sake. Love regulated by another person’s response is not love at all.

Love, in its purest form, is outwardly-directed rather than inwardly-directed. When another person’s burden becomes more important than your burden, that is the beginning of love. Love is from God. Paul recognizes this as he writes in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, "And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men ..." The Lord gives us the ability to increase our ability to love.

Want to know how to become a better lover? Open your heart and welcome in the fullness of God’s love. Let the perfect love of God within you express itself to people around you. A strong vertical love affair with God produces a strong horizontal love affair with others.