Love in the wrong Places.

When I think about love in today's society I think about how abused the word is. We meet someone and at the end of that same day we say "I love you!" and act like we genuinely do. Yes, I bet said guy or girl is pretty great, but do you really love them? Also, we use the word Love too lightly in regards to materialistic things. "I love my new shoes, pants, shirt, etc." We even do this with food! Do you really love that chipotle or is it just very good? Maybe chipotle was a bad example, because I think I may genuinely love chipotle, but that is beside the point. The God we worship is love. If you want to define God or describe him in one word God is love. With God being love I most certainly do not think we can put materialistic things,other people, or food on even close to the same level as God. That is absurd.
To be completely honest, I am constantly looking for love in the wrong places and giving love to the wrong things. Love is meant for God and for people, this is our Lord's biggest commandment. I struggle with seeking love from people alone and not from a God who never stops loving me. That would be too easy right? To accept love from my everlasting God who never stops giving it?
I am obsessed with looking for love from everyone else. I feel the need to gain the approval of everyone around me and do whatever it takes to please man. I am not on this earth to please man and my efforts should be invested in pleasing Christ not man. I find myself saying or doing certain things to make people like love me. God loves me and if I be myself and pray that God works through me people will love me too and I will not need to seek and obsess over their approval. Seeking out man is like putting man above God and I do not worship man, so why do I want man to love me so much?
Speaking of man loving me, this is another struggle I have to admit. I look for love in relationships with the opposite sex to make me feel whole. Relationships are an amazing thing that using a guy to complete you will never work. I have been in several relationships and they failed because I was seeking out a selfish love that I was using to make me feel good about myself. Relationships are meant to glorify God and his love together as believers, NOT this "you complete me" stuff. It may sound romantic, but it's a joke. Only God's love can complete you-- no one elses.
Ladies, I do not want to discourage you. It's great to be loved and to give love, but do it with God's will in mind. Do it while trying to seek after God's heart. God loves you and are purpose on this earth is to love him and find love in him, not things of this earth. Let the almighty God complete you. You can fulfill this if you recognize that you have a God that loves you and always will. We have this amazing never changing God that wants to consume you with his love, you just have to let him-- and not let someONE or someTHING else.
Love Wins,
Emily I.