I sent some thoughtful words
& prayers to a friend this morning before she went into surgery (not to
worry, she’s fine. She’s just vain). We went back and forth for a while and I
closed with ‘Love you’ and thought, wow that seems impersonal. So, I deleted it
and added the word ‘I’ to my closing and it seemed so much more personal to
tell her that I loved her.
It got me thinking about the
word ‘love’, the term “I love…” and how overused and abused it has become. I then
thought of something my Dad wrote a few years ago. (Nick, my Dad, not to be
confused with Daddy or New Dad) So I guess today we have a guest blogger of
sorts. Words of wisdom from my Dad, Nicholas Mitchell.
Love You Too
How many times have we heard those words?
They are usually a response to you telling someone
“I love you”.
Did that person ever call you first and say “I love
you”?
It saddens me that love can be such a one-way street
and that
so may people take it for granted but are not willing
to
commit themselves to an honest friendship.
“love you too” is a way of avoiding the truth in a
relationship.
We throw away words so easily because we don’t want to
face
the truth of our feelings and just say what we want
the
recipient to hear. What he or she wants to hear.
“I love you too”. What a lie.
My life has been filled with so many “love you too’s”
God never says I love you too.
He says I love you!
We all need to practice this principle in our lives.
We have to follow His example and tell our friends
And neighbors “I love you”
Maybe they will start believing this and stop
responding with
“I love you too”
and start saying “I love you”! Before you do!
The first time I said those
three little words to my husband, his response was less than what I had hoped
for. If I remember correctly, he took a deep breath and said “thank you”.
That’s right, people, he THANKED me for my love. At the time, I was so
heartbroken, but I get it now. Nobody wants an obligatory “I love you too” response.
It would probably feel similar to getting the forced “I’m sorry” from the bully
on the playground. Saying “I love you too” is definitely not always the right
thing to do.
I feel like in today’s
society, the word love is just thrown around so carelessly that it is sometimes
reduced to “Oh my gosh, I LOVE those chicken nuggets!” And then we tell our
kids “Love you!” on the way out the door. I’m totally guilty of it—as a matter
of fact, I just cooked some
Cracklin’ Chicken from
Nom Nom Paleo and we all
LOVED it!
So for today, I’m going to
make my loves count and try to say it first!
Funny side note: when I
messaged Dad to ask him for this writing, he closed his response with “love
you”.