True Love

I'm not the mushy-gushy, PDA, express my feelings publicly type of person. So, don't worry, this post is totally PG.

I was reading through the talk Love Takes Time by Elder Marvin J. Ashton. I'm not going to lie, I didn't get to read the whole thing, but I'm working on it! What I did read was wonderful!

What touched my heart was this story from a young man:

“My dad never seemed to love me and yet he made big deals of saying ‘I love you’ and kissing and all, but I learned that ‘I love you’ meant you didn’t have to do anything. I mean we were never forced to do chores regularly, given no morals, spiritual training at all. To this very day I don’t know what principles my parents stand for.”

What are we doing to show our love? Does Love really mean no discipline, no work, no regulations, and no standards? Or does Love mean to show guidance, to appropriately punish when necessary, to teach cleaning, cooking, math, science, and other skills, and creating a standard and expect it to be lived up to?

Love is more than just hugs, kisses, and words. It's action! Jesus taught us that when he said, "If ye love me, feed my sheep". Did you catch that? We are to FEED His sheep. That's an action. We are to nourish each other through service and kind deeds, not only kind words.

So go DO something with or for someone you love. Take a walk with a child and admire how beautiful the fall leaves are. Help your wife do the dishes. Show some real, sincere interest in your husband's football game, TV show, video game, or whatever hobby he has. Sing songs to your baby. Help your sister with her homework and be patient. Share books or read stories with your brother. There are so many opportunities to show love but we too often miss them because we're too tired, don't have the time, or have something "more important" to do at the moment. Once that moment is lost we never get it back.

Elder Ashton shared this story as well:

A friend of mine recently shared what he considered to be a choice learning experience. It was provided by his young son. Upon returning home from his day’s work, this father greeted his boy with a pat on the head and said, “Son, I want you to know I love you.”

The son responded with, “Oh Dad, I don’t want you to love me, I want you to play football with me.”

So say "I love you" and then prove it with your actions!