Love

Valentine's Day is just a few days away! The smell of love, flowers and candy fill the air. Whether it's love for your spouse, your children, parents, or a best friend – everyone has someone they can share a small token of love with.
But what is love? According to Dictionary.com, it is "a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person." Yet, that definition doesn't seem to fully portray what love is, at least not to those of us who have experienced true love.
And yet love is a word that too many people tend to forget the significance of.
The word love is found 551 times in the Bible (NIV).
The Greatest Commandment, in fact, deals with love. In Mark 12:28-31, we find a teacher asking Jesus, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" Jesus answers by saying, "The most important one is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."
True love can be had between a husband and wife, a parent and a child, siblings and even best friends. But, of course, we most often think of love when we think of our spouse/significant other.
God even gives us explicit instructions on how we are to love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, and 13 (New International Version) "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
It's incredible how even the smallest token of love/appreciation can make someone feel. Everyone has the desire, deep down inside, to feel loved and appreciated. It's a "need" that God planted in us when he made Adam and Eve.
A simple gesture, sometimes, is all it takes to bring a smile to someone's face.
A simple card or a box of candy could genuinely make someone's day.
As we go around in this crazy world/life of ours…sometimes it's easy to forget about everyone else but ourselves. It is so easy to get wrapped up in our own feelings and our own problems.
Valentine's Day is one day that is intended to make us all step back and think of someone else.
I encourage every one of you to find someone to send something special to. Try to think of someone that might not get a gift from someone else…. your neighbor, a co-worker, a friend or the widow down the street. What if the only thing that they get is your gift? Imagine the smile on their face!
Isn't that what love is all about?