Thursday, February 10, 2011

What LOVE Really Means (& a Giveaway!)


Today is my turn to join up with the lovely Mattie and several other wonderful blogging mommies to share what love really means to us. I'm honored to share a piece of my heart along with these other women, so here goes.

Love. Probably the most powerful word in the human language. The most coveted, the most longed for, and sometimes, the most painful.

All we ever know of love we learn. We learn in moments all strung together wrapping us up in the emotions. We learn of the love between man and woman watching our parents growing up. Then one day we fall in love and learn through experience. We learn the true meaning of unconditional love when we have children. Countless times I have stared at my own children just in awe of the love they have brought into my life. We love our family. We love our friends. We learn to love them through good times and bad. Love is not always easy. It's not always Valentine's hearts and roses. In fact, most of the time it is not. But truth is, we need love. We need these connections. We sometimes even need that desperate pain that comes in the midst of it. We learn. We learn to give and receive. And since God himself is love, I know our greatest lessons lie in Him.

My greatest lesson in love has also been my greatest gift and greatest hurt. One very special little girl taught me more about love, God's love, His grace, compassion and hope, than I ever even imagined existed.

Most of you who will read this post have felt that same loss, and I'm sure, have felt that same love. That love that caused your world to collapse. That love that broke your heart in a million pieces. That love you achingly clung to despite the facts. That love that you'd give anything to have. To have here. I felt and still feel all of that. But there's something else. That was my love to give and I am still amazed at what I am given in return.

His grace. Not possible to survive without it. How else do we even breathe? Thank you Lord for that friend when I needed her. Thank you for that peaceful moment when I thought I'd lose my mind. Thank you for that stranger who shared their heart. His grace comes from love.

Faith. I believe. I BELIEVE He works all things for good. I BELIEVE I will see Hannah again. I BELIEVE in that glorious reunion and that Christ died for our sins. Out of love. All out of love.

Compassion. Never have I known such compassion in my life as what Hannah has given me. I have poured it out and I have taken it in. That compassion has been a lifeline. It has made an unbearable day bearable. It has filled me up where otherwise I am completely empty. It is PURE love working through God's children. And it was born in me that very same day Hannah was. LOVE.

Love to me is an action, a verb, ever moving and changing and working. It consists of endless sets of emotions and to truly put it into words is nearly impossible. You have to FEEL it, LIVE it, and sometimes most painfully, LEARN it.

So in honor of these posts and Valentine's Day and just plain out of LOVE, I'd like to host a giveaway. What am I giving away, you ask? Don't know, but I'll surprise you with something nice, I promise! Just leave me a comment below about anything LOVE. I don't care what it is at all, a story, a quote, a verse, whatever. Just something about love that means something to you!

And don't forget to check back with Mattie tomorrow to keep reading and me on the Monday, February 14th for a winner!

25 comments:

  1. These words have me sobbing...the love I'd give anything to have here...so, so true and perfectly written. Grateful, grateful, grateful for you!!!!!!

    xoxoxoxoxo

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  2. What a beautiful post. ♥

    Dear Children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth - 1 John 3:18 (NIV)

    I absolutely think you should tell the ones you love that you love them...all the time, but SHOW them they are loved as well. The words are beautiful to hear but when my kids run to me and hug me so tight, I feel the love. When my husband embraces me, I feel the love.

    LOVE - there are no words to describe this...it is an overwhelming feeling in the heart.

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  3. Such a beautiful post Katy. Thank you so much for sharing. Love is one of the things we can not fully understand until we give it away and you, my dear, give so much love!

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  4. What a sweet and honest post--thank you! I used think I knew what love was and then I married and began having children. It is beyond amazing the ways in which God expands our hearts through joys & sorrows to know even further depths of love, and most importantly, His Love. ALL my children have taught me to love better and have enlarged my heart. I thank God for every moment with them all.

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  5. This is beautiful! I always thought I knew what all love entailed but I had no idea until Elijah what love really truly was all about. It also brought me to a completely new understanding of what God's love is.

    Thank you for sharing your heart.

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  6. I couldn't have said it better myself! Every word you wrote could have come directly from my heart. Love is something that is felt, and can bring so much joy, and so much heartache as we've learned. "The best and most beautiful things, must be felt with the heart." -- Helen Keller. Thank you for this giveaway!

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  7. Psalm 23:6
    Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
    God is so good, as I walk this path & learn to live without my Isaac & Hannah I am continually reminded of His love. As He restores me, refreshes me, & renews me.

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  8. Knowing our Lord LOVES Amelia even more than I do is beyond my comprehension, yet I KNOW it is true. There is no greater comfort than that my sweet baby girl is with Him.

    Until we meet again..Mommy loves you baby girl.

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  9. What a beautiful post. Love to me is my husband, my children my angel son in heaven.. I have to love extra here on earth so that ill for sure get to be with him in heaven. Love is knowing that the lord is in heaving watching over all of our babies until we get to meet up again... Love is strong, powerful and amazing!

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  10. Absolutely beautifully written. I was one of those teenagers who knew that they knew what love was. At least that's what I told everyone. I married him. I loved him. So I thought. Then, when I saw him with our first baby, I saw what love really was. A child brings us so much, and I think the first lesson they teach us is what exactly love is.

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  11. Oh Katy..what a beautiful way to describe love..I do believe that Aubree taught me the most about love too..that sometimes we have to be willing to let them go because we love them..to accept that they are in a much better place even if that means that they can't be here with us. I do believe that she also taught me how to love everyone else more too. You yourself have shown me a lot of love, and she brought me you too..:)

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  12. Love is so essential in this life. Most of all I am thankful for God's love. He shows us the way love is supposed to be.

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  13. What a beautiful post Katy! Thanks for sharing! I really love this quote...it makes me laugh!

    "You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip."

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  14. This line rings so true: "my greatest gift and greatest hurt". To me, love after loss is almost a dichotomy. It's the highest of highs and the lowest of lows all wrapped up in one.

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  15. Katy I "Loved" reading your post today! You always seem to speak from your heart to ours! Thank you for sharing your beautiful words and heart with us today!

    Jennifer @ Eli's Valley

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  16. beautiful post!!
    Love is knowing someone will always be there for you. God is love!

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  17. I loved your post, Katy! My favorite Bible verse - John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. xoxoxo

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  18. What a touching post Katy!

    This Corinthians verse is one of my favorites:

    Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
    -- Corinthians 13:7-8

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  19. Thank you for posting, Katy, and sharing Hannah's life with all of us. I am always touched by what you write and share.

    "The greatest gift you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." ~Moulin Rouge

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  20. I LOVE this post! Such raw truth about the most beautiful, precious, aching love that many of us have experienced. You expressed it beautifully.

    Thank you...

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  21. Love is the greatest gift of all. Beautiful post !!

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  22. Your post was amazing! My definition of love has changed. Before my world got tilted and sent for a tizzy I thought love was just a feeling you felt for someone an emotion to describe something. Now since my little one passed, I know it's God and knowing he is there.

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  23. What I think about love this February the 14th... it will be my boyfriend's 29th birthday, our 2 1/2 year anniversary, my twin sister will be going in for another round of chemo, even though the tests are showing it's not working, and it would have been the due date for our little Nadia Anne who we lost at 20 weeks last September...

    So this valentine's day, more than any others I will be thinking of love in so much more of an encompasing manner than I have have before...

    That in joy and sorrow, the mundane of everyday life and the extradordinary hope of possibilities and dream, love can reside. And that, of all these, it really is greatest...

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