Love is an act of endless forgiveness …
[Peter Ustinov]

I’ve been thinking about the difference between loving someone and liking someone. I think love is a gift of eternal caring that I offer someone. It endures no matter what — even if they don’t accept my gift. Liking someone, on the other hand, is a subjective reaction that depends upon both my perceptions and the way the other person chooses to interact with me. I can think of several people to whom I offer love, whose traits don’t appeal to me at all. I’ve reached a stage of development where I do not seek out the companionship of people who bring strife and other negative things into our interactions, but I can love them. There are times when that person is me and I know I need to mend my attitude in order to like myself even though I always offer myself the gift of love. Maybe that is part of what it means to love our enemies. I’m thankful that we aren’t told to like them as well.