by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Each person wants and needs it. It is a primary need. People want to feel at least worth acknowledging and at least worth treating with dignity and respect. Who enjoys being shunned, passed by, ignored, or treated as worthless?<\/p>\n
All we need is love, goodwill, and our world is better. Now, the Beatles got it right regarding that basic idea. “All we need is love.” But love is not love unless it is responsible love. Real love makes a parent make some tough choices, sometimes not a feel-good choice, but love looks further down the road to dangers. Giving a young teen all they want and all the rights they want may be easy to make them like you, but it is not necessarily love. Enabling a teen to be lazy and irresponsible is a set-up for failure. That is hateful, not love.<\/p>\n
All we need is love that makes responsible choices and teaches why laziness is not good and responsibility is good. We also need love that disciplines the unruly child for his\/her own good and does not reward bad behavior. We need love that shares the vision of being industrious, vigilant, and productive. We need love that gives and demonstrates the kindness one wants to receive.<\/p>\n
Love, the right version of it, the kind you read about in the Bible, demonstrated in Jesus, is selfless, actively doing good toward others, sacrificial, and dedicated to holy principles and pursuits. With that kind of real love, addictions to drugs and alcohol would go away. Theft would go away. Broken homes would go away.<\/p>\n
Misery caused by selfish attitudes and actions would go away. All we need is love, the principle set in each heart as the foundation of a value system that guides all other actions. Need to repent? Love motivates that? Need to be baptized in Jesus’ name? Love for God motivates that. Need to apologize for hurting someone needlessly? Love motivates that. Get this principle in its primary position, and it gets the family going in the right direction, the church, and the world. All we need is the right kind of love, and things start improving! (I Corinthians 12-13).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton Each person wants and needs it. It is a primary need. People want to feel at least worth acknowledging and at least worth treating with dignity and respect. Who enjoys being shunned, passed by, ignored, or treated as worthless? All we need is love, goodwill, and our world is better. Now,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[106,65,354],"class_list":["post-87245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-discipline","tag-love","tag-responsibility"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2883,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-a-wife-do-if-she-feels-unloved\/","url_meta":{"origin":87245,"position":0},"title":"What should a wife do if she feels unloved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What should a wife do if she feels her husband doesn't love her anymore? He only touches me when he wants sex. He won't talk or discuss things with me. When I talk about the situation, he says that's all I talk about. He works all the time, does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27387,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-love-my-girlfriend-but-she-does-a-lot-of-bad-things-i-want-to-follow-god-what-should-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":87245,"position":1},"title":"I love my girlfriend, but she does a lot of bad things. I want to follow God. What should I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I have a question about what I should do with my girlfriend. She's the love of my life, and I can't imagine ever being without her, but ever since I got real serious about God, things she does bothers me so much more. She smokes weed and cigarettes,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19448,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-boyfriend-and-i-have-broken-up-so-many-times-i-dont-know-what-to-do-i-love-him-but-im-confused-and-need-some-help\/","url_meta":{"origin":87245,"position":2},"title":"My boyfriend and I have broken up so many times, I don’t know what to do. I love him, but I’m confused and need some help","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My friend told me to send you an e-mail because you really helped her out, and she thought that you could help me. I have been in a relationship with this boy for 7 months now. We have broken up so many times I lost count. We have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45197,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/brotherly-love-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":87245,"position":3},"title":"Brotherly Love (Moyer)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer In our modern-day, \"love\" has many faces. A man may see a woman for the first time and say, \"I'm in love.\" What he means is, \"I have a strong attraction.\" To some, \"love\" implies lust. Basically, \"love\" means anything we want it to mean in whatever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9761,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-obey-god-even-though-i-dont-want-to-is-that-proof-that-i-love-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":87245,"position":4},"title":"If I obey God even though I don’t want to, is that proof that I love God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, When I do something because it's a commandment from God, and even if I don't want to, is that not proof that I love God? So there are things I don't like to do but because I love God I do it anyway. And on the other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20146,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/weve-been-living-together-for-five-years-and-dont-need-a-paper-to-prove-our-love-but-i-want-to-make-it-right-with-god-what-should-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":87245,"position":5},"title":"We’ve been living together for five years and don’t need a paper to prove our love, but I want to make it right with God. What should I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My boyfriend and I have been together for almost 7 years. We have lived together for 5. We are not ready for marriage. He and I think we don't need a piece of paper to prove our love, but I want to make it right with God. 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