I love you

As I was going about my I noticed how many different conversations I have with people. I didn't actually count, although that would be interesting to do some time. I think the number would be somewhere around… a lot. I started to notice something about my conversations with certain people. A phrase kept popping up over and over again, I Love You. Then the tune to a childhood song popped into my head "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family. With a great big hug and a kiss from me you. Won’t you say you love me too?" I started thinking about what I was actually saying, and wondering if I was guilty of taking the word love to lightly. I suppose the best way to start answering this question is asking what is love? What does it mean? (“what is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more” plays in my head) I remember learning about this several times in Sunday school in reference to the different ways Jesus showed his love for us. In the Greek language there are three different types of love, there is Eros (sexual, where we get our word erotic), Filio (bromance), and Agape (selfless love). Sometimes the English language is frustrating to me because I have to use the same word to describe my feelings for ice cream and movies as I do my feelings toward my family and friends. Love. I think from now on when a song pops into my head I’m gonna put in in italics “love is a many splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is looooove. Love is all you need.” So now that I have a decent understanding of the word love means am I using it correctly? Since three different forms of love don’t exist in the English language we have to show what we mean by our actions. The root of all true love should be agape and the other two should be based on the situation. Christ had an agape love, He was always selfless and served others until the day he died. I want to be like that. I want to without hesitation be able to meet someone and instantly be able to do anything for them because I love them with the love of Christ, especially if they are in the family of God. “I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God, I’ve been washed in the fountain and cleansed by his blood.” That covers everyone, what about the ones who are special to me? The ones that I consider my brothers and sisters?   I guess I need to define what I consider family. The easiest way to do that is to look at someone I consider my brother. Josh Simon. What makes him my brother? Several things, first the length of time I have known him. Second, I can share anything and everything with him and him with me. I can trust him, and he trusts me. I can be myself around him and he with me. We can agree to disagree and still have discussions. We can talk for hours at a time. We have both made sacrifices for each other. I have a similar relationship with a few people other than him and when I say I love you to them I mean it in a filio way as well as agape. The last way I love people, and by people I mean girls is eros and I don’t really think I need to go into that :)

So when I tell someone I love them, it needs to come from an overflowing of Christ’s love in me. I need to be prepared to put them before myself (agape) and treat them as I would my brother or sister (filio). And if it evolves past those two into eros love that love needs to always stay grounded in the love of Christ and have the respect of family love. So to wrap up let me say from the bottom of my heart

I love You!