All You Need is Love......

This may be bad timing to make this particular statement but here goes....I think Valentine's Day is a dumb holiday.  Aren't we supposed to love everyday?  Do we really need a "day" set aside to do something really special for someone we love?  I am learning everyday how important "little" things are.  A friendly hello, a smile, a hug, a pat, a courteous gesture, a sincere word, how difficult is it to express these things to the people we love and the strangers we come in contact with?  Isn't this in fact how Christ would want us to act every day.  I know it is not practical to think that I can actually walk around with a happy smile on my face all day long every single day of my life but I am challenging myself in ways that I have not ever done before.  I am reminding myself that although I may think that someone does not deserve my kindness, my affection, my forgiveness, my friendship, my love, my respect, the truth is I don't deserve it either but God gives it to me willingly and lovingly every single day in spite of my failures.  HE loves me and he doesn't set aside a "day" to do it, to show it.  He does it every single day with sunshine, smiles and hugs from my children and my health to name a few.  So although Valentines is about romance and ok I get that, don't let it be the only day you extend something special to someone you love, or to a stranger you don't even know, everyone is struggling with some kind of adversity. :)  I have always heard the saying "you don't really know love until you hold your own baby" and now that I have my own babies I know that in fact is VERY true.  I know what love is, I have experienced love on levels that words can't explain and I am grateful for those I share it with!  So to celebrate "Valentine's Day" here are a few quotes on love that I thought worth sharing!


A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself - to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart.
-- Leo F. Buscaglia 



Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage.
-- Lao Tzu 


Do you love me because I'm beautiful, or am I beautiful because you love me?
-- Oscar Hammerstein


Falling in love with someone isn't always going to be easy... Anger... tears... laughter.. It's when you want to be together despite it all. That's when you truly love another. I'm sure of it.
-- Author Unknown


I am so glad that you are here... It helps me realize how beautiful my world is.
-- Goethe


I love you, not for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
-- Ray Croft


If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin Into his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
-- Emily Dickinson


If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
-- Mother Teresa


I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
-- Maya Angelou