L-O-V-E, More than a song or a day…

What does it mean, L O V E?

It is a condition of the heart and of the mind. Love is a concept bigger than humanity, but we are gifted daily with the opportunity to experience it. Love is brilliant and mysterious, and perplex, and multi-dimensional. Love is a breeze in springtime and the sunlight in a cold winter. God is love. God’s love is sacrificial and unending, it’s full of grace and forgiveness. When one who is a believer looks for a standard to follow, it shouldn’t be people, movies, or myths, but God. Humans err. It’s innate in our nature. We rise and fall like the ebb and flow of the waves, but God is everlasting. He is infinite and vast. Our understanding will never be His understanding though we seek to enlarge our mental composition with His help and grace.

We are approaching a season where love is commercially celebrated. Do not mistake that sentence for an arrow or shade. While I highlight the fact that it is when stores, shop owners, jewelers, and restaurants hike up prices and promote sales all in the name of love, I enjoy the season when love is on display. I am a believer in the sentimental things that come from building a relationship and knowing someone. Knowing if that person likes mixed chocolates with mystery cream, all in the name of having a gift (lol, I do not like mystery chocolate). Or even if that person wants to be a part the Valentine shuffle at all, because some people don’t (I do 🙂 ).

I love LOVE. Literally. I love the idea and concept of ceremonially drawing attention to those whom you feel an unremarkable affection for. Furthermore, I celebrate those who CHOOSE love daily. There is a difference between being in a relationship for default reasons (public commitment without private effort, business agreements code name marriage – when the covenant is missing, or even because you don’t want to be alone – ALL RED FLAGS) and those who are intentional about doing the work to sustain love after the feeling has faded. Did I lose you?

Love, the feeling, according to some research in a book I love -> The Five Love Languages , gives the max “falling in love feeling” two years. That means after that time frame, the rose-colored shades may fall off like the scales on Paul’s eyes after the Damascus road. Then, one must actively choose daily to be self-less in his or her relationship. If God is the model, there can be no selfishness. So, you must chose daily to communicate, care for, hear out, forgive, sacrifice for, provide for, nurture, respect, and honor the one you love.

During the month of February, I will highlight via video a few people who have who have endured and come out on top as it relates to love and marriage. The truth is, one can love even in tough times. As a matter of fact, I would argue that how you love when you don’t feel like it speaks to the depth of that love. I can only think of a million times that God could have withdrawn His love from me, but MERCY said NO!

Enjoy the days leading up to the public celebrations of love and the private ones that we can only imagine occur within the parameters of healthy relationships. Enjoy the holiday and the splashes of non-anatomical hearts, pinks, reds, purples, and whites glittered throughout stores, the love songs streaming the airwaves, and the reservations as they are made. Enjoy the standard of Love and the human journey to be more like Him. Then come over to the blog and enjoy the videos soon to thrill you!

In LOVE and crushing on my Valentine,

Ivy Out