This week I've been reading President Hinckley's book Standing for Something: Ten Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes. I was excited that the first chapter is about love because I have been praying to have more charity for others. This chapter was an answer to my prayers, and has made me a little bit more aware of a few things. And I think that Nat King Cole song got it right.
L is for the way you look at me
Not only have I been feeling more love for others, but I've been noticing the ways that others show their love for me. It amazes me how much other people serve me, in little ways and in big ways. And it just makes me love them all the more. I love Kelly's excitement for little moments. I love Camille's willingness to listen. I love that Alex and Eliza make sure to make me feel included when it's just the three of us in the apartment. I love that Hillary makes me laugh and gives me hugs. I love that Mary meets me for lunch and always offers to give me rides. I love that Josephine will call me up randomly and ask about my life. I love that Aubrie supports me in everything I do. I love that Beka isn't letting me be too dependent on her (because we all know I was when she was still around). I love that my new home teacher, Adam Broud, brought the March Ensign over tonight to make sure we had a current copy of it in the apartment. I love that Aaron Andrews (awesome dinner group friend) makes sure to tell us girls that he appreciates getting to eat dinner with beautiful ladies. I love that all of you love me.
O is for the only one I see
This afternoon, I watched a movie that reminded me what is important in life: my relationship with my Father in Heaven, and the people whose lives I am a part of in any small, insignificant way. I would recommend Letters to God to anyone looking for a movie to uplift and inspire, as long as you don't mind crying. In the movie, Tyler is a little boy with cancer who writes a letter to God every day. He shares his fears and his pain, but also his hopes, his love for others, and his faith. The faith and love of this one little boy change the people around him. Love is about that "only one" in two ways. First, love is really about giving whomever you're with all of you while you're together. To pay attention, to listen, to share. And second, love starts with having faith in and love for the only true God, our Father. Only then can we truly have love for others.
V is very, very extraordinary
Love has many facets, and one of them is a little different than the others. I think I've done a pretty good job of avoiding it until now :) Someday (probably far into the future) I want to fall in love with someone who makes me want to be a better person, who lifts me and teaches me and loves me. And I want to do the same for him. In Standing for Something, President Hinckley talks about this kind of love. He quotes a reporter who said "The world is full of unhappy men and women who married . . . because it seemed like a good investment. Love, however, is not an investment; it is an adventure." He then tells the story of friends he knew in college that he ran into some fifty years later on an airplane. For the sake of time and space, I'll just retype the end:
I wish that I might have caught with a camera the look on her face as she talked of him. Forty-five years earlier, people without understanding had asked what they saw in each other. I thought of that as I returned to my seat. Their friends of those days saw only a farm boy from the country and a smiling girl with freckles on her nose. But these two found in each other love and loyalty, peace and faith in the future. There was a flowering in them of something divine, planted there by that Father who is our God.Okay, so that was more than I'd planned on actually typing out, but it's just so good! That is what I want in my life. I want a love that is an adventure, that transcends logical explanation, a forty-five year romance that isn't nearly over--something very, very extraordinary. Sometimes it feels like it will never happen, but everyone deserves that happiness in life, and I'm going to hold out until I find it.
{Chanticleer, Cells Planets: "I don't know you, but I miss you. I don't know you, but I need you."}
E is even more than anyone that you adore
And in the end, it's hard to fathom that as much love as I can feel for all of you wonderful people in my life, for my parents who do so much for me, for my adorable brother who sometimes makes me go crazy missing him, it's not even a fraction of what the Savior feels for each of us, individually. He knows who I am, how I'm feeling, every bit of everything I've ever experienced, and he loves me in spite of my flaws and because of all of it. And that will never change.
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