2014: Day 5

Today's challenge is to write about what love means to me.

There are so many components to the word love that I believe make it such an incredible word.

To me, love is selfless. Love is service. Love is finding that seed of greatness in everyone around you.

Love is seeing others through God's eyes and understanding His view of them.

We are taught to love our parents, love our spouses, love our children, love our friends, etc. but what about loving those that it's hard to love? Do they need love too?
Maybe it is your parent, spouse, child, or friend that is hard to love. What keeps you loving them? And if you've stopped loving them, what caused you to stop?

Sometimes it's hard to stay focused on the things that really matter. It's easy to get offended or think that we deserve so much more. This has continuously been something I work on in my life. I often feel jealous or jump to conclusions or believe I deserve better but the truth is, when I focus on loving and serving, none of those other things seem to matter.

I love pretty easily. I love quickly. I am grateful that I have a natural tendency to find the good in others. The irony is using the word natural because I wasn't always this way. But throughout my life, I've learned to find that good in others because I would want others to do the same for me. And now it is natural.
I see love as an important thing in everyone's life. Everyone shows it differently but everyone wants it. No one truly wants to be hated.

I remember the very first time I stared into my newborn daughter's eyes. The love I had was unconditional. She was perfect. Nothing could change the love I have for her. It was an unexplainable love, the type you would need to experience to completely understand. She was the first person in my life that helped me to understand the phrase "I am a child of God". I knew she was my mortal daughter but far greater things were in store for her. She is a princess, the daughter of a King. I loved her and it gave me a glimpse of how my Heavenly Father sees me.

God knows we all make mistakes. He knew that when he sent us here. But He loves us unconditionally and that is my goal in life---to see everyone the way Heavenly Father sees them.