I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains — but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burnt — but if I have no love, this does me no good.

Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.

When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I have grown up, I have no more use for childish ways. What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete — as complete as God's knowledge of me. Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13

Whilst I’d love to take credit for those words, they come from the Bible — this is just one of my favourite passages. It describes the kind of love I want to embody in my life, with everything I do and everyone I meet. Sometimes, I believe we can be guilty of over-thinking what it means to show love, such that we lose the true meaning and value of it. But reading this chapter over and over again realigns my ambitions.

Love is patient, kind and eternal. It never gives up.