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The Word Love When asked to choose a word for a writing assignment, think on it and ultimately write about this word - “Love” was not my first choice. It was not even my choice. My mind was searching for an important word, a fun word, a word of deep meaning. A word with more than one syllable. But, when in frustration, I finally asked God what word He wanted me to write about. This one syllable word flew into my mind. It actually flew into my mind before I had even completed my question. My response was; “Love? Really?
You can’t do better than that?” Then I got smart and stopped arguing. After hours of thinking and sleeping on it, and thinking some more, this is what happened in my brain. I wrote the article below for class, and was encouraged by our instructor, to search out a magazine who would give my article a home, in their February issue. Valentines Day. I need to do this. But first I am sharing it with my church family. We have just experienced the joys and stresses of the Christmas season. What better time to speak of the simple, one syllable, very complicated word - “Love.” Enjoy.

Let me ask you a question. What does the word “love” mean to you? Take a second. What word or words pop into you mind? Romance? Valentines Day? Your loved one’s name? Maybe your favorite flavor ice cream or those boots you found on sale - that you just have to have? Are you perhaps smiling, as you remember your first love, and the flutter in your heart each time your eyes met, or your hands touched? Or, are tears slipping from your eyes, as you ache for the love of your life, who has been taken from your world all too soon?

Love. Such a simple four letter word. One lone syllable. Yet, so complicated. Love of country, love of money, love of family, love for God. This complex four letter word, may in fact, be one of the most essential and also ill-treated words known to man. We as humans crave the love of another, oftentimes going to great lengths to discover and acquire love. Without love in our lives, we feel incomplete, empty and alone. Whether it be the love of our family, a friend’s love, God’s love, or a country to love - our souls cries for it. Our sons and daughters at this moment are sacrificing their very lives - all for love of country.

This complicated, petite word, is an incredibly powerful force. We humans, fall in love, slide out of love, love madly, experience love’s first blush and love’s final breath. We know the thrills of new love - the heartaches, joys, and struggles of continued love - and the incredible sorrow of our true love’s, last breath.
Our hearts become, if possible, all the bigger, and our love magnifies as we
 bring new life into the world. This is pure love. A love for which we would gladly lay down our lives.This love is beyond reasoning and is all -consuming. We are their parents and they are our children. We live in them, and they live through us. There maybe no greater bond of love.

 This amazing, confusing, complicated thing called love, sadly, all too often in today’s throw away society, has become just that; something we desire for the moment, and then, callously toss aside when something, or someone,
 better comes along.
The word love is wielded by some as a cruel weapon, whose soul purpose is to control and abuse, “If you loved me you would…,” leaving the victim, feeling confused and helpless. Marriage vows too often are spoken hastily in love, betrayed in lust, and broken in hate. This is not what love was meant to be.


So in a nutshell, what is love? Love is alive and powerful, with the ability to uplift and encourage. Love lived before the dawn of time. Love spoke and life was created from nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and never fails. Love is commitment and takes faith. Love’s touch has the power to heal a wounded heart and empower the frail soul. A child crawls into a parent’s warm, loving embrace and finds peace and strength when they are hurt. A wife leans into her husband’s strong, loving arms when she is afraid. We can all cry to our loving Father when we feel lost and forlorn.

God’s perfect love, hung suspended between heaven and earth. Betrayed. Beaten. Abused. Forgiving. True love is unconditional. It is forgiving. It is everlasting. For some the word “love” is seldom used - “they know I love them,” and only spoken after a loss. How sad. Love is the greatest gift ever given to us, and the greatest gift we have to give to others. This tiny word is so important, that it stands before both “faith” and “hope.” “Faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.” God’s love is perfect, human love is not. Love is absolute, and by no means simple.

Never Forget

I felt so guilty this morning. It was 8:52 am, and I stood in my kitchen with a package of Raisin Spice oatmeal in my hand—my favorite kind—when the announcer on the radio asked if we knew what was happening at that very moment in Manhattan. Then he played a snippet of a person’s voice calling out people’s names—people who had lost their lives on 9/11. I had, for the first time in twelve years, forgotten. How could I have allowed that to happen?

I, as most of you, remember exactly where I was standing that morning. I remember Matt Lauer of the “Today Show” (back when I used to watch it) getting a strange look on his face, as he listened to someone giving news feed in his ear. I remember him saying that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Then…. everything in our lives exploded as not one but two jets careened into the side of the buildings. Then one more crashed into the Pentagon and yet another crashed in a Pennsylvania field. As the Trade Centers collapsed in a plume of black smoke, ash, papers, and human beings, so did our feeling of security within our borders. We had been attacked. Now, twelve years later, victims are still losing their lives as a result of that one-day—firefighters, police, survivors, those who lived close to ground zero—are to this day suffering physically and emotionally. Thousands upon thousands of our brave men and women who serve our country have paid the ultimate price—their very lives—protecting our borders and our freedom. And I forgot. But I remember now, and always will.

Patty Wysong's A2Z Take 2 Writing challenge

The following articles are pieces I wrote for Patty's amazing challenge. Scroll down my sidebar check out her link.