I Love You!

I married young. Well, we both did. I was 18 and Lisa was two weeks away from being 18. We loved each other and still do.

As I have watched over the years, especially in my ministry, I have seen so many who have married young and as they matured and gotten older begin to look around and think that they missed out on something. They dated, most beginning in middle school, and the words "I love him/her" slipped through their lips as they had heard others, sometimes their parents, say so freely.

The words "I love you" are not words just to throw around and "waste". When a person utters those three words they need to be words of commitment, when uttered to someone we are connecting with in a personal male/female relationship. They need to be thought out and contemplated with meaning and understanding.

Too many times those three words are the beginning of the end of some relationships because they signify commitment. They are not bad words, but they carry a lot of weight in a relationship.

Saying I love you is something I say with several connotations.

First, I do tell my wife I love her and I do and have ever since the first time I said those three words. That has never changed since that first time.

Second, I tell my children and my grandchildren and extended physical family that I love them on a regular basis. It is a love that is different from the feeling and meaning I have for Lisa, my wife, but no less a true love.

Third, I love my brothers and sisters in my spiritual family that I love them. It is different than the love I share with the previous two. It too is a deep love, but not the same type of love or depth.

Fourth, I love to eat! Enough said.

In all of the first three there is a level of commitment that is understood, or at least should be. Commitment is a word that is what I like to call a forever word. You must decide to do it no matter how difficult it becomes. I do believe that there are times when it does become too difficult to continue, so be careful.

When you tell someone those three words, "I love you", please take a moment and ask yourself if you really do before you express those three words.

By the way, I do love you, just not the same as the love I feel for, nor in the same way I felt when I began dating my wife. I love you, but not the same way I love my family. I love you because you are a part of my extended spiritual family and friends. You are loved but not the same way.

If you are young and dating, stop and think about how freely our culture is throwing around those words "I love you." Make sure that when you say them you understand what they truly mean. If you need to overcome some loneliness in your life, don't let the lie of evil that "if you tell someone you love them that will change the way they feel about you" become the reason you utter those words that truly mean so much more than we sometimes think.

When you say I love you, remember that those words are forever words when said to someone you are becoming not only spiritually involved with but with the possibility of a long term physical relationship that must have a spiritual connection to last.

I love you all. But, I love Lisa Bird Farmer in a way I will never love you.

It doesn't mean it is a partial love, but it is an exclusive love that I have for her. That is the kind of love you need to look for. Look for a love that you are willing to sacrifice to keep for a lifetime.

God bless you all.

Britt