My Thoughts on Love

Valentine’s Day was this week.  I went all out and gifted my husband with…nothing.  I’m sweet and romantic like that.  Don’t worry, he didn’t get me anything either.  We did go out to eat the week before in celebration, or at least that’s what I said to justify eating at Logan’s.  Really I just wanted an excuse for someone to cook me steak.  I love steak.  It’s the way to my heart.  Just ask Dean.  He took me out for steak on our first date and look where it got him.  I went on a date with a guy in college who took me out for Sushi.  I don’t even remember his name.  Sorry, I may have gotten a little off topic.  I don’t think the point of this post was steak.  What was it again?  Oh yeah, love.  Aside from steak, I also love my husband.  I may even love him MORE than steak.  I think love is a little misunderstood, though. 

Love isn’t buying chocolates and flowers once a year.  Love isn’t even a feeling.  Well, it is that too, and it definitely starts that way.  But love isn’t just a feeling.  If you rely simply on the emotion, love won’t last.  There’s just too much stuff to get in the way.  Life gets in the way.  True love has to be an action.  I love my husband, so I show him that I trust him, that I respect him.  He loves me, so he makes it known that he values my opinion.  Actions.  Big actions like following his lead on a decision, even though it’s risky and kind of scary.  Small actions like scraping the ice off my windshield because he knows I hate the cold and doesn’t want me to have to be in it any longer than is necessary.  It goes beyond just a marriage relationship, though.  Love should be an action in any relationship.  I love my daughter by talking to her, and showing her attention.  Our Sunday School class loved us by bringing us meals after we had Dinah.  My mother-in-law loved us by making cookies and shipping them to us when we didn’t have a working oven.  I hope you’ll think of love as it should be, an action more than a feeling.