The world God has given us is filled some amazing things. I had a lot of time to think about this over the weekend during a stay in the hospital. I think the greatest gift we are given is the ability to love. Love is a mystery. Love is elusive for a lot of us. If only love was an easy thing to give and receive I think you could change the world in an instant.

God brings us into this world as a clean slate. We don’t know how to hate. We don’t know how hurt others. I believe it is love that is the connection that is fostered between a new born and their parents. Love is born in all of us as a gift from God.

But, if love is not continually reinforced in our lives as we grow and experience the world many of us seem to lose that feeling. We stray from God’s message of loving others and ourselves. I came from a family environment where love was lost in our daily lives. My parents never said us, my sister and I, “I love you.” We went to church each Sunday, but still the message of God’s love was never brought into our home. What little I know about love I learned from watching, observing and reading; but never from first-hand experience.

Like a lot of people in the world, I am what they call “unlucky” in love. I have had my heart crushed several times as almost everyone has at some point in their lives. I have been told things like “I really didn’t mean it when I said I loved you” or “they came back into my life so I don’t love you anymore.” So, through all these years I have lived, I have lived alone feeling that I have not really know what love is. But that has not stopped me from giving of myself to others to show them that love is all around them even in the most trying of times. For my definition of love is to give as I believe God intended us to do.

On this Valentine’s Day, think of those you love. Share with them the love that is in your heart. Share with them one of the greatest gifts God gives us… love.