Elder Jose L. Alonso's talk, Love One Another as He Has Loved Us, has reminded me of a very important fact: Love is not just a noun; it is also a verb.
We sometimes speak of having love for someone or something, or being in love with someone or something, and those are valid uses of that word, but they leave out the idea of expression. When someone truly loves or has love for someone or something, they usually show it. The acts by which they express their love can be said to be the act of loving them.
Case in point, I just spent a day or so with a couple. During that time, they repeatedly served each other, helped each other, expressed concern for each other's well being and happiness, and addressed each other by terms of endearment. By this, I could tell that the two really loved each other. Love wasn't just a passive emotion they felt toward each other. Love was an active habit and the driving force of their relationship.
We should have that kind of love for everyone. While we can't and shouldn't love everyone romantically, we can and should love everyone actively by actively expressing the love we feel (or know we should feel) for them. We can do this by serving others, by being kind to them, by forgiving them, by teaching them, and by doing any other thing we would do for someone whom we deeply cared about. These are just a handful of examples. Our genuine love of others will help us to identify more.
The more we act on our love, the more our love will be felt, and the more noun-type love will exist in the world. It may inspire others to engage in verb-type love, too. So, let's try to shed our shyness and our preconceived expectations of others' reactions, and let us try to actively love each other and not just passively feel love for them.
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