Extend Love

When we decide to extend love, we can never go wrong. What it means to extend love can, at times, be tricky. Sometimes we extend love by withholding our advice and allowing another to make mistakes and learn from them. How do we know when to help and when it is more loving to decline? Our intuition is our best resource to guide us. But, even if we misread our intuition, or fail to consult it, if our hearts are attempting to extend love, then we are making the world and another person’s life better.

We are never wrong to extend love even if we judge our attempts to be flawed. Our vision doesn’t allow us to see the broader landscape, nor does it allow us to see the future. What we judge as flawed or even mistaken may be the incident that changed another’s life. Whatever mistakes we make, real or imagined, can be covered by love. In the Christian Bible, the author of 1 Peter has this to say: “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”[1]

Love doesn’t fail, but when we fail to love, we fail ourselves and others. It’s a mistake to withhold love. The purpose and meaning of life is to extend love.


[1] 1 Peter 4:8, New American Standard Bible