Love=Life

Love may sound a little hokey when we first hear about it. Pictures of a mother kissing her baby for the first time or an elderly couple holding hands after forty years together elicits a collective “Aw…”, but little more. It is obvious to me that Kimchi and I begin our journey with you by talking about love. It is the foundation for everything this blog stands for—from loving yourself the way you are to loving others, especially other women.

"The cure for all ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows and the crimes of humanity, all lie in the one word 'love.' It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life." -Lydia Maria Child

We are all born with the need to be loved. It’s inherent in all human beings—God just made us that way. We seek love all the days of our lives. Sometimes we find it where God intended like our families, church, etc. Sometimes we find it in strange places—an elderly neighbor who becomes a mentor, a person once thought to be an enemy. The point is that, along with water, food, and shelter, we need love.

When people are without love, they’re not whole. They start looking other places to fill that need, often to their own detriment. You can trace the past of most psychos and serial killers and find that at some point they were thwarted by love—whether it be the love of a family or a significant other or just people in general.

Last week we talked about the potential little acts of kindness had to create bigger ripples. Love is like that. We never know the effect that showing a little love toward a fellow woman could have. Have you ever heard the song “Moments” by Emerson Drive? If not, hop over to YouTube and look it up. It’s a pretty extreme version of what I’m talking about, but it shows how if you step out to help someone, you can change their lives.

Love is a foundation to build any relationship upon. If we’re to help each other as women, we must first reach inside and pull out that love. Just like God reaches us where we are, so we need to reach each other where we are. We all struggle and we all need the kind of love that does not ridicule us, even when we make mistakes.

While I was living in Fort Leavenworth, I had the honor of meeting three incredible women. We were all very different—coming from different backgrounds, different struggles, even different stages of our lives, but we shared two things in common. We were all military wives and we all had a relationship with God. With those women, I knew I could go to them with any problem, any crisis…anything and they would do their best to help me without judgment. It is rare to find that with one woman, let alone three at the same time. I know I was very blessed. God gave them to me at a time in my life when I was struggling to find my place, to know who I am.

So how do we lay that foundation of love? What makes this foundation so important? Join me tomorrow and we’ll look at some practical applications for this foundation.