Commercializing Love

When I was young, I remember thinking I was in love.  I must've been 8 or 9 at the time, when I met her at my YMCA summer day camp.  She was the girl at day camp and I was going to stop at nothing to show her my deep and loving affection.  One day on the playground, I professed my undying love for her.  I even stated: "I love you so much, I would swallow rocks for you!"  She didn't believe my heart-felt proclamation...so in front of everyone, right next to the slide, I picked up 3-4 pebbles and swallowed them whole!  She then screamed: "EWW GROSS!" and the teacher lost her mind and sent me home.  I believed love was a strong emotion that needed to be proven by ridiculous displays of affection.  I believed that something I do proves the love I have...yet there is so much more to love.

 This silly story I think shows something important: sometimes our definition of love can diluted and lacking. Much of love that is touted in today's society is very much about stuff and the purchasing of affection.  Take the upcoming holiday of Valentine's Day for example.  Here love has been so commercialized that there must be something bought or done in order to cause your loved one to feel loved.  We limit love to such a small window when we do this. Not only are we saying love can be bought, but we are condensing all of our "real love" to one day.  It's known as "the day of love".  I desire my wife know I love her every day, not just one.  It's easy to buy objects to "prove" your love...it's quite another thing to live your life in such a way as to show and demonstrate your love.

Let me challenge everyone this weekend to live love, not buy love.  Do this every day, not just one.  Do not allow the commercialized version of love to sway how you show your affection to your significant other.  Men, we can do better than buying a box of candies, a bouquet of flowers, doing a dinner out and calling it "done".  Maybe your lady needs an hour long foot massage.  Maybe she needs to just have the house picked up so she doesn't feel like she's losing her mind.  Maybe the most tangible way to love your wife this weekend would be to take all of the kiddos out in the morning and let your lady sleep until noon. I know for my wife, that would be HEAVEN.  Maybe, the way to show love is to do nothing, but simply be with your significant other.  Get to learn and use the love language of the person you love.  Don't do this for your gain either...do it for their gain. Also, this doesn't have to be a "Valentine's thing"...we can do stuff like this for our significant other ANYTIME!

I implore everyone to find ways to love at all times, not simply the commercialized times where society gets all hyped about love.  Love is so much more than a fleeting emotion. Love is a verb (as my old friends D.C. Talk would say)!  Live it out.  Display love.  Live a life of love.  Be love.