I Love You. Period.

Love.....ahhh.....LOVE. We seem to toss that term around so casually these days. We can "love" anything from the latest TV show to the newest flavor of chips to a 0 score in tennis. In our world today, sex seems = to love. (P.S. IT'S NOT) Love is more than a feeling and an overused word in songs.

Love also can have conditions. 

I love you, if......  I love you, even though......  I love you, but...... 

Lately, I'm learning that sometimes we need to just stop after "I love you" to make sure that the person we're talking to hears the whole intention. The ifs, ands, buts and even thoughs can come later in a different discussion. Sometimes we don't hear what comes before the comma. We just hear you would love me better if I was more, different, whatever. 

This can be difficult with a spouse or a child.....or I'm finding out sometimes, even ourselves. It's so easy to use the comma, if, and..... and not stop at the period. I love you. I love myself. I will save the other stuff for another conversation. At this time, in this moment, I just need you to hear I LOVE YOU. I will love you in the next minute, hour, day, month, year. Love is different and so much more than like. What we do, the decisions we make will not always (hardly ever) be the best. We will live and we will learn. It may not always be in my strength, but I will love you.

You may not feel love right now. You may not feel like giving or receiving love. Sometimes when we don't feel like being loved, is when we need it the most.

I looked up the definition of "love" online. There are 9 definitions. My favorite wasn't at the top of the list: unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another  The dictionary lists "love" as a noun. Love is also a word of action.


John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I pray that you will feel love, be able to give love and accept love for yourself and for others. May you know that you do not need to love in your own strength. You are loved. Amen.

Jude 1:2  Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

1 Peter 4:8  Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 

1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (PERIOD!)