A Little Bit of Tough Love

Love...
What is love exactly?
Is it a  feeling or an action?
Maybe it is an emotion or maybe just a thought.

Whatever love it, whatever the dictionary definition is or what you may think of when you hear the word love it is something. Love is a word that we hear at least once a day either in the context of one person saying it to another or you will see it written somewhere. While we are familiar with the concept of "happy" love I don't think enough of us are familiar with the concept of "tough" love.
I think that any kid would argue that point and tell you that they are very familiar with the concept of tough love. I know that I felt that way growing up. Between the ages of 6 to 10 I thought that the whole world showed me "tough" love. I was positive that tough love meant that someone either didn't want to love me or that they found it difficult to love me. As I have grown, though, I have learned that the phrase tough love has a much deeper meaning.

I have personally learned that tough love is a feeling and an action. I learned that tough love is, after 7 years of loving someone so much, letting that person go and knowing that God has a better plan for your future and that He will cure the pain. I have learned that it is falling to my knees in prayer for a family member when I know that prayer is harder to do than going and fixing the situation. Through those moments I have come to better understand the love that God had to express towards His Son has he hung on the cross to die, and even the love that He sometimes has to express towards us, His children, when we wander away from him.

The truth about love is that, while yes it is a wonderful thing, it can also be a very hard thing. When you look at it from the perspective of how difficult this type of love will be to implement you will come to understand that this is also the love that has the potential to grow you and strengthen you. I am not saying that this is the love that we should implement in our daily interpersonal relationships, but instead it is the love that when it does come our way we should look for as many opportunities to help us grow and become more and more like Christ.

Love...
What is it?
It is an action and a feeling and an emotion and a thought.
It is also, so much more. It has the potential to make us a new person in Christ.
Love is a wonderful thing, even the love that is hard.

That Girl...

That girl you see, yeah, the one sitting at the corner table sipping a latte and reading her book. For just a moment would you look at her, and rather than judge, would you think with me?

You see, that girl. The one who may not have the perfect hair or maybe her shoes are a little worn. She feels lonely, invisible, and stupid. She doesn't choose to feel this way, but she does, and those feelings torture her. She is a little shy at first, but if you took the chance to say hi you would realize that she is very energetic and outgoing. You would even discover that she loves people.

That girl, the one who may sometimes look like she is upset, she really isn't. Rather, she is pondering some of life's greatest questions. When she isn't pondering those questions, though, she sits and wonders why people avoid her.

That girl, the one who may seem a little odd, which maybe she is and she may even tell you she is, her mind flows with thoughts and beautiful pictures that she can reproduce. Her art is majestic and comes from her heart. If you looked at some of her work you may see how happy she can be, but if you got to know her she may take the blanket off of those pieces where tears flow down faces, and houses sit empty and lonely, but the sun shines outside, because she is hopeful that those tears won't have to flow anymore some day.

The people around us are more than just people. They are men and women, boys and girls, who feel. They feel love, and anger, but they may also feel loneliness or even invisible. How often do we take a moment to stop judging appearances or attitudes and stretch out our hands in greeting? How often do we consider the fact that the girl who may look perfect every single day, is really falling apart inside. And that girl who was popular in high school, could care less about popularity, all she wants is one friend. If we chose to love and smile at those around us rather than judge, we could slowly change the way that the world looked at people. And maybe, at the same time, we could learn something about ourselves.

A New Journey...

My dear readers,
The past two months have been a journey. One filled with searching and writing and pondering many, many things. I haven't written during that time because I wanted to be sure that I could completely devote myself to this journey, and I think that it was rather successful. I have always desired to be a writer who would pour her heart out and be real to her readers, it is something that I have always appreciated from other people. I hope that over this semester I will write pieces that will inspire you. I hope that I can effectively pour my heart out to you and impact you in some way. Here is to a new year, and a new journey. Will you join me?
All my Love,
Your letter writer