Love Is a Many Splendored Thing

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

Lessons "Love Comes Softly" can teach us...

The word "love" has many meanings to many people. The New Testament's First Corinthians letter sums up love's attributes by saying, "Love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; is not irritable or resentful..." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

In this spirit comes a new DVD collection of the much-cherished "Love Comes Softly" series, produced and directed by Michael Landon Jr. and based on the classic books by Janette Oke. In the series, a recently-widowed pioneer woman named Marty is forced into an initially loveless marriage of convenience in order to provide for her unborn child. Marty's powerful journey discovering her faith through the loving qualities of patience, trust and acceptance brings to life timeless themes of hardship, compromise, grief and hope. Though set against the backdrop of the pioneer West, her story resonates equally in today's world.

For Marty, uniting her new family in love wouldn't have been possible without a growing faith in God. These movies got us thinking about love's divine nature, so we asked our Beliefnet community to tell us what love means to them. Find out what they had to say.