What is love?

I recently had a conversation with a person who I've had a lot of conflict with throughout the years. This person made the statement to me "We don't have to be friends. I know you and I both have lots of friends, so it's not like we have to be friends.....I mean if that's what God does then great, but if He doesn't, then that's fine". Ouch.. I felt it was said to let me know where I stand and that my friendship, or lack thereof, was insignificant. That "I" was insignificant. It would be easy to let something like that hurt. But instead, oddly, it made me feel good! It made me realize that I don't feel that way about others and wow, that's a great feeling! It's an awesome feeling to know that I don't feel the need to put limits on my love or ration out my friendship to just those that I have common interests with, people who are easy to love, people who I've never had conflict with, etc. Personally, I have current friendships with lots of people. Some I've never had conflicts with, some I have. Some have similar personalities to mine, some are completely the opposite. Some are easy to love, some, not so much. But I have the same desire to love and have a friendship with each and every one of them. And I have the desire to make many, many, MANY more friendship throughout my lifetime. So, I'm not sure if it has a name, but whatever gift this is, thank you God for blessing me with it. I love the freeing feeling of having more than enough love in my heart to go around. I love the feeling of forgiving. My final conclusion. You will never be able to make everyone like you or love you, but that doesn't have to limit the love in your own heart for others. Just pray and love.

"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love". (1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NLT)