The Difference Between Love & Infatuation

Have you ever been in a relationship where you thought you loved someone and you thought you were going to spend your whole life together, but only to be heartbroken?
Have you ever been in a relationship where you thought you married a perfect loving person but only to discover that your loving relationship was not as “perfect” as you think? The person you once loved has become the person you hate or desire to break-up with.

It’s amazing that one of the most misunderstood words when it comes to the subject of relationships is the word “love”.
Many people want to be loved and many people want to be in love. However, it seems as if very few people understand the true meaning of love. Furthermore, few people are able to differentiate between love and infatuation.

What is Infatuation?
Infatuation is defined as an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone or something.

• Therefore infatuation doesn’t last long; it happens instantly and quickly.
• Infatuation is driven and fueled by lust; it is all about sex pleasure and physical affections
• Infatuation believes that your partner or the person you desire is “perfect”; it makes you believe that you are in love with a someone who can do no wrong when realistically none of us are perfect
• Infatuation makes you feel like you know everything about your partner but yet you have known your partner for a short time and most certainly may know very little about him.
• Infatuation is interested in self-gratification or self-satisfaction; your passions are not about what you can give or contribute to the relationship – but your passions are about what you can get from the relationship
• Infatuation can consist of pure intense feelings and very little volitional or rational thought. Therefore decisions are made purely out of feelings and emotions rather than rational reasoning.
• Infatuation is therefore like a roller-coaster; One minute the relationship is great and the next minute the relationship is bad and then later its great again
• Infatuation makes one overly jealous and over protective; it desires control but also fears loss
• Infatuation cannot be satisfied; it usually wants more and if it does not get what is wants, it will look elsewhere which results in broken relationships.

What is Love?
Love is exactly the opposite of infatuation. Love is more than just feelings and emotions – but love is also about actions and principles.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says the following about the subject of love:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

The truth is that all kinds of relationships will face tests and trials. There is no loving relationship that is immune to challenges and problems. The thing that binds relationships together is true love.
Any relationship that is bound by infatuation alone will never last.
However, love is what binds people together especially through trials and challenges in life. True love remains faithful through all situations. True love sees the flaws of others but still loves them regardless.
True love will always help to ensure that you try to do the right thing within your relationship. True love gives; it is not self-centred. It respects others and does not look for its own personal gain but it focuses on others.

Therefore understanding the difference between love and infatuation is one of the most important things in any relationship.