Love is a verb

I’ve been reading 7 Habits For Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey again. What a phenomenal book!

Covey tells a story about a man who approaches him after a seminar complaining that he and his wife no longer love each other but don’t know what to do about it. Much to the man’s frustration, Covey tells him to love his wife and that will fix it. The man objects that the feeling simply isn’t there anymore. Covey goes on to explain that love is a verb, an action word. We display love by doing things such as serving, sacrificing, listening. The feeling of love will follow loving actions. I couldn’t agree more!

Years ago when I was first married, before ever even having the benefit of reading Covey’s amazing books, I made this decision- I chose to love my husband whether I thought he deserved it or not. It has been a key decision for me. Some days it has been easy to make the decision all over again to keep loving him and some days it has been hard. But it’s interesting to me how it keeps getting easier as life goes on and we keep putting each other first. We’ve come to depend on each other and to trust in the love we have for each other. A love that shows through our actions, some of which (like kissing in the kitchen) our children will protest. But we can see the truth in their eyes- they are happy their parents love each other and aren’t afraid to show it!