Several years ago I wrote a post about love and shared it here. I am choosing to repeat that post again today because the message is worth repeating. Here it is:
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1Corinthians 13)
He
was 16 and she was 15 when they met that July and yet something deep
inside her told her this boy was different, special, worth getting to
know. She didn't have a lot of time to get to know him because he was
getting ready to go to Sweden as a Rotary International exchange student
for the year and yet they had enough time. They wrote letters back and
forth once, sometimes twice a week, and he called her on Christmas Day,
something that had to be prearranged in those days. They talked for
just a few minutes yet it was enough. He returned home at the end of
his school year abroad and they spent the summer together and the next
year until he graduated from high school and immediately headed off to
college. They continued to date and when he was home you rarely saw one
without the other. She had a moment of doubt her freshman year in
college and broke off their relationship despite the fact they had
already picked out an engagement ring. Her mother was furious with
her. He was brokenhearted. He returned the ring. She dated other boys
often calling them by "his" name. By Christmas she realized her
mistake and called him hoping to re-establish a relationship, begging
for forgiveness; he was dating someone else but they talked and before
long they were together again. They married, had 2 children (a girl and
a boy) and have battled the ups and downs that come with any
relationship; the good times outweighing the difficult ones. It is now
42 years since they met. They have been married 37 years. She has been
with him for more than 70 percent of her life and yet she still loves
him with her heart and soul. Today is Valentine's Day and the card
she gave him could not begin to express the depth of her love for him
and so she is sharing this on her blog but writing it for him.
To
my loving husband, Jay, who I love more than words can ever express.
Thank you for sharing your love and your life with me. You continue to
show me what love is in everything you do. I am blessed to have found
you but know without a shadow of a doubt that God arranged our meeting
at that church paper drive 42 years ago.
Here are some profound answers from children when asked; "What does love mean?"
'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4
'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.'
Rebecca- age 8
Rebecca- age 8
'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
Terri - age 4
Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'
Bobby - age 7
Bobby - age 7
My
favorite is a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an
elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man
cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his
lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the
neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'
