Love vs Lust

Ariana Ballard

There is a perpetual bliss that fills the heart and warms the soul. The sensation tingles the spine and excites the arms with goose bumps, as the stomach giggles with flutters from butterflies.  It is the joyous feeling between crying with gratitude and smiling for acceptance of it. This sensation is often called love. To know what love is one has to truly understand the purpose of it. A naive mind is deceived into concluding love is the surface knowledge of another being. They believe it is having a strong sexual connection, an attraction to physical features, or the lingering smell that grasps the nose as they intake the scent of that being. That easily persuaded mind has never experienced love, but yet has been intoxicated with lust. (wow—great introduction!)

As a woman, as a human, my brain is born to release chemicals and hormones that stimulate my mind and control the functions of my body. When I feel a strong physical attraction to someone my brain automatically releases oxytocin. That chemical is a hormone known as the bonding emotion. When that hormone is released, as a woman, my naïve mind automatically assumes the feeling that I am enduring is love. I am attached and attracted to this person. I love everything about them from the way they laugh to the way they walk; I love every physical aspect of them. But physical attraction to someone is momentary, for eventually looks change and the fire and desire that was once felt begins to simmer out. Once that attraction extinguishes, I no longer love that person. My simple minded, chemically controlled brain no longer loves this person my heart could have sworn itself to. My ignorance was not that I was attracted to this person, but that I loved them. Never did I conclude the feeling as pure lust.

Many have somatic definitions of love, but not many have concluded that love is a spiritual connection. Love is what woke me up this morning. Love is the acceptance of me physically, mentally and emotionally. Love is understanding the core reason for all that I do in life and allowing it to guide me to my destiny and purpose of this life. Love is what gave me life. When I have had my faults and my falls, love never left me, but yet stood by me and carried at times when I was too weak to do so myself. To know love is to know God. To me, one can love another human but they must have a stronger bond with God. Once one understands the depth of love that God has for them, they can seek love in mankind. When that strong spiritual connection is made with God, love will guide them to a mate that completes the soul. That person just needs to be patient, have faith, and trust that God knows what he is doing and will place that person in their life when the time is right; if not then they will end up with a bad case of lust and broken hearts for they sought for a physical connection instead of the spiritual blessing God had in store for them.