Love

Gretchen A. Smith

LISW-CP

2/7/2022

I think Valentines’ Day is fun.  I like hearts and chocolate and pretty, decorated cookies.  I enjoyed making valentine “mailboxes” when I was young.  I have hosted Valentine's parties, made Valentine's breakfasts, given Valentine’s away. 

Writing that paragraph was a challenge because I wanted to write the word love a few times when that is not really the kind of love on which I want to focus.

A mom I spoke with recently listed one of the strengths of her son as “loves hard.” I really like that. The thought of a person being willing to serve, care for, protect, help, be steadfast, and faithful to another seems right.  Loving hard, with all your might.  As my son said, “Steadfast love and faithfulness ought to define/describe both the way that we live with God and the way that we live with other people…” This might be a challenge depending on circumstances, personalities, and certain relationships. Regardless of how we feel about it, this is what God calls us to do. So, let’s do it! Let’s love hard. Let’s love each other every day with all we’ve got.