I guess I have had this on my mind a lot lately. What does it mean to really love someone? There are a few quotes that I have found as I have studied this out:
"True love is not so much a matter of romance as a matter of anxious concern for the well being of one's companion." -Gordon B. Hinckley
"Love is a fragile thing. Much damage can be done if we are not in tender hands, caring hands." -Jeffrey R. Holland
"True love blooms when we care more about another person than we care about ourselves." -Jeffrey R. Holland
"To love another righteously is to protect, to elevate, to keep pure and undefiled, and to sacrifice one's self for the benefit of the other."
-Richard G. Scott
"Love is spelled TIME." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf
"Perfect love is perfectly patient." -Neal A. Maxwell
"We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to love an imperfect person perfectly."
"I suggest that you not ignore many possible candidates who are still developing these attributes, seeking the one who is perfected in them. You will not likely find that perfect person, and if you did, there would certainly be no interest in you. These attributes are best polished together as husband and wife." - Richard G. Scott
I say, "I love you" to so many people. What does that mean? What do I mean when I say that?
I don't think I can say that I honestly care more for anybody's well being than I do for my own. My prayers are full of selfish requests and guidance for my own life. I am watching many of my friends and even family members at this point in time 'fall in love.' What does that mean?
What does it mean when the romance fades? What does it mean when the person you say you love is having successes that make you feel like a failure? What about when they make mistakes that really affect your happiness?
That's what I'm trying to figure out. It has been humbling for me to see how weakly I love others; I put them behind myself, always. And I am not good at supporting others when I myself am hurting. I speak badly to my parents if they are frustrating me, or if my life isn't going how I would hope that it would. I am so quick to blame them.
I need to repent. I cannot say that I love God if I cannot love my neighbor the way that the Savior loves my neighbor. I cannot say I love God if I get frustrated with and punish myself because of imperfections.
Can we say that we truly love anyone? If so, congratulations. It is something I yearn to be able to say, one day. That I truly have loved someone the way that they deserve to be loved; more than myself and with every ounce of mercy and forgiveness possible. I hope to love others, one day, the way my parents love me. The way my Savior loves me.
Love. What does it really mean in our lives?
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