LOVE .... 1 Corinthians 13

What is love?

I say "love" many times a day (possibly too much) and it seems we (Americans) have attached multiple meanings to the word love. I've said "I love you" to so many people in my life. I've tagged the word love onto so many things like to say I love a book, and outfit, an idea, a place, ...etc. the list goes on and on.

I've spoken of love so much, so many times in my life- yet I'm not sure I really know what love is. As I look back on my life thus far, I kind of, sort of, think I wish I would have used the word love more carefully and maybe even a little less.

Is it fair to tell someone I love them when I'm not sure I even know what love is? Or is it better to have loved too much than not at all?

I don't have any answers right now and I can't say I will.
But for now, I'm trying to say "like" more and be more careful about what and when I say "love".

1 Corinthians 13

"1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."