"What Does Love Mean?"

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of four through eight year olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

"Love is that first feeling you feel before all the bad stuff gets in the way."

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love."

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth."

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your french fries without making them give you any of theirs."

"Love is when someone hurts you. And you get so mad but you don’t yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings."

"Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired."

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

"Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."

"When you tell someone something bad about yourself and you’re scared they won’t love you anymore. But then you get surprised because not only do they still love you, they love you even more."

"There are two kinds of love: Our love and God’s love. But God makes both kinds of them."

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore."

"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."

"Love is when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken."

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

"I let my big sister pick on me because my Mom says she only picks on me because she loves me. So I pick on my baby sister because I love her."

"Love cards like Valentine’s cards say stuff on them that we’d like to say ourselves, but we wouldn’t be caught dead saying."

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you."

"You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

"God could have said magic words to make the nails fall off the cross, but He didn’t. That’s love."

Source Unknown

Love One Another

Someone has said, "Love is hard to define, but it is easy to see."  True love is seen in our response toward people and toward God.

Let's face it: It's more easier to talk about love than it is to demonstrate it. I guess, this is why we sing about it and talk about it too much. True love is more than pious speech. It is doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It is doing for others when they cannot do anything for you. It is sometimes being a servant when you know that the recipient of your service is undeserving. As we grow and mature spiritually, we will demonstrate true love in our lives.

"May the Lord help us to obey His command to love others, even when we feel they don't deserve it."

You might also be interested in...

• 4 Tips On How To Develop Love
• 100 Ways To Say "I Love You"
• Love Yourself
• Love 
• Do What You Love 
• Perfect Love 
• Putting God First At The Center of Our Lives

9 Tips on How to Develop Love

1. PATIENCE: "Love suffereth long."
2. KINDNESS: "Love is kind."
3. GENEROSITY: "Love envieth not."
4. HUMILITY: "Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up."
5. COURTESY: "Doth not behave itself unseemly."
6. UNSELFISHNESS: "Seeketh not his own."
7. GOOD TEMPER: "Is not provoked."
8. GUILELESSNESS: "Taketh not account of evil."
9. SINCERITY: "Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth in the truth."

100 Ways to Say "I LOVE YOU"

LOVE is a four letter- word which means different things to various people. Here are many ways to express 

Image courtesy of bigoo.ws

 

in different languages:

Love Yourself

Do you love yourself? How do you nurture yourself and take care of yourself?

The act of taking care of yourself creates a positive attitude, self-esteem, and confidence. Do the things that you really enjoy and have always wanted to do. Nurturing yourself doesn't have to be expensive. There are many simple ways of loving yourself.

• Read a good book
• Watch the sunset 
• Write a poem
• Have  great shower
• Decorate  a room
• Have pizza with a friend
• Create a photo album
• Listen to your favorite music
• Play with your kids
• Visit a museum or church
• Have a dinner with your husband/wife
• Buy a new shade or a lipstick
• Bake a cake
• Give yourself a make makeover
• Take a family road trip
• Pray in the morning
• Start gardening 

 

When you start valuing yourself you'll begin to realize that it'll be easier to value others around you. Recommit to take care of yourself first so you are able to extend that love to your family and friends. When we express how important a person is to us and how much we appreciate them, we strengthen the bond to that person. It feels good to share loving comments with another.

You won't be able to give love if your love tank is empty. Fill up your love tank with love first, and then you have something to give, because you cannot give what you don't have.

Love yourself or you won't be able to love anyone else.

Perfect Love

As we start each day let's make sure 

that we are at peace with all men. 

Is there someone who has hurt you in some way? 

Do you feel the pains that were consciously or 

unconsciously inflicted on you by people?  

Are there sufferings you thought didn't affect you; 

rejections that gave you disturbed nights?  

Remember that hurts 

can grow into bitterness. 

Resentment and bitterness 

can cause sickness.

Don't run away from them. 

Face them and be healed.

God said, "It's okay to hurt. Because deep within you, you desire to be loved perfectly. Unconditionally. Completely. This is your deepest longing. I created that desire within you, so that you would pant after me. You expected from people what they can never give you. Perfect love. It is only I who can give this to you."

LOVE

I was going over my e-mail and chanced upon this beautiful letter. I want to share this to all those who have loved and hurt, those who haven't loved at all and those who are just about to discover the beauty of this moving emotion. Though this might be long, it is worth the reading!

When you think of your past love, 

you may view it as a failure.

But when you find a new love, 

you view the past as a teacher. 

In the game of love, 

it doesn't really matter who won or lost. 

What is important is you know 

when to hold on and when to let go!

You know you really love someone 

when you want him or her to be happy, 

even if his or her happiness means 

that you're not part of it. 

Everything happens for the best. 

If the person you  love 

doesn't love you back, 

don't be afraid 

to love someone else again 

for you'll never know 

unless you give it a try. 

You'll never love 

a person you love 

unless you risk for love.

Love strives in hurting. 

If you don't get hurt, 

you don't learn how to love.

Love doesn't hurt all the time, 

though the hurting is still there 

to test you and to help you grow. 

Don't find love, let love find you. 

That's why it's called falling in love 

because you don't force yourself to fall. 

You just fall. 

You cannot finish a book 

without closing its chapters.

If you want to go on, 

then you have to leave the past

as you turn the pages. 

Love is not destroyed by a single failure 

or won by a single caress.

It is a lifetime venture 

in which we are always learning, 

discovering and growing. 

The greatest irony of love 

is letting go when you need to hold on 

and holding on when you need to let go.

We lose someone we love 

only when we are destined 

to find someone else

who can love us 

even more than we love ourselves.

On falling out of love, 

take some time 

to heal and get back on the horse.

But don't ever make the same mistake 

of riding the same one 

that threw you the first time. 

To love is to risk rejections; 

to live is to risk dying, 

hope is to risk failure. 

But risk must be taken 

because the greatest hazard in life 

is risking nothing! 

To reach for another is to risk involvement, 

to expose your feelings is to expose true self; 

to love is to risk not to be loved in return. 

How to define love: 

fall but not stumble, 

be constant but not too persistent, 

share and never be unfair, 

understand and try not to demand, 

hurt but never keep the pain. 

Love is like a knife. 

It can stab the heart 

or it can carve wonderful images 

into the soul that always last for a lifetime. 

Love is supposed to be 

the most wonderful feeling. 

It should inspire you 

and give you joy and strength.

But sometimes, 

the things that give you joy 

can also hurt you in the end. 

Loving people means

giving them the freedom 

that they choose to be 

and where they choose to be.

For all the heartaches and the tears, 

for gloomy days and fruitless years, 

you should give thanks, 

for you know, 

that these were the things

which helped you grow.

Loving someone means 

giving him the freedom 

to find his way, 

whether it leads towards you 

or away from you.

Love is a painful risk to take 

but the risk must be taken 

no matter how scary painful, 

for only then you'll experience

the fullness of humanity 

and that is love. 

Only love can hurt your heart, 

fill you with desire and tear you apart. 

Only love can make you cry 

and only love knows why. 

If you are not ready to cry, 

if you're not ready to take the risk,

if you're not ready to feel the pain,

then you're not ready to fall in love.  

There was a time in our lives 

when we became afraid

to fall in love 

because every time we do, 

we get hurt, 

then I figured

that's why it's called falling in love. 

When you decide to love,

allow it to grow. 

When you promise to love,

refuse to let it die.

Image courtesy of bigoo.ws

Do What You Love

What is your passion?

What is the one thing that you love to do , where you feel most alive and happy?

To simplify our lives, we need to find out what our passion is and find what we love doing.

There can be no joy of life without joy of work.

-St. Thomas Aquinas