I Like You Very Much

I have been wondering, have I ever been in love? Have you ever been in love? Lets find out……

I have loved people. I love my parents. My mom did everything she could to take care of me. She didn’t always make the right decision, but I know that every bad decision she made was because she believed it was what was best for me. I love my mom because she loved me first.

I love my sister. She is nine years older than me but took time from her life to help raise me. My mom worked all the time trying to provide for two kids by herself, so my sister took time away from hanging out with friends, doing all the things popular high school students do, to see her little brother play flag football. She used to sneak me out the house to play when I was on punishment. She would tell my mom she did things that I had done because she knew she’d get in less trouble. When she was in college she started a savings account for me so i'd be able to get a car when I graduated high school. I love my sister because she loved me first.

I love my sister’s two kids, my niece and nephew. My niece is the prettiest girl I have ever seen. My nephew is the coolest little guy on the planet. I’d give anything to those two if they needed it. I’d give my life to them in a second. I love them because I love my sister.

I love my father. I didn’t meet him until I was twenty-one. I never knew who he was growing up. He and my mother married a few years ago. Its funny when you think about it, my mother and biological father marry after being apart over 21 years. I love him because he created me, and he takes care of my mom.

That’s a different type of love though. I didn’t choose to love any of these people, its more of a natural thing. When it comes to family, the love will always be there. To an extent it means more to like them, because that is a choice you are making on their behalf based on their merits as a person.

No one cares about that love though. Everyone just wants the romantic love…. To be “in love.” This is what I was wondering about. Have I ever been “in love?”

I don’t know if I believe in love at first sight. I do believe every man has a woman walking this Earth that was created specifically for him. Eve was created from Adam’s rib. There was a natural, physical connection between the two. Every man today has a woman created from his rib too. You two are connected to one another before you even met. That is the person that no matter what happens, you and her will be there, together, forever. You don’t fall out of love. You don’t have to question it. You just know it. You feel it.

The problem with people today has A LOT to do with our culture. As Americans, our free enterprise, capitalist structure has made us into one of the most selfish, pompous, egotistical, conceited, and self-serving groups of people known to man. Ever. Everything about our society promotes our own self-interest. The easiest way to get ahead is by stepping over those around you. We commit to nothing, but instead are always looking for the next best thing, devaluing what we have. We focus more on what we don’t have than appreciating the things we do.

This affects more than just our professional lives, but also our personal lives. We care about people…..tell people whatever we think they want to hear……just to serve our own personal needs. We seek relationships solely to satisfy ourselves. We look for a person that can satisfy our wants first. We only do for others so that they will do for us, and we rarely do more than we think we will receive. Unless of course, we are only doing so to make ourselves look better than them. Then, when everything is cool, and we think they are everything we want, we throw out that term “I love you.” And 99% of the time they say it right back. its rude not too! So that means you are “in love” right?

If it were that easy, then why do half of all marriages end in divorce? How can we love someone today, and have a new “friend” tomorrow? Is love that weak? Is it truly such a temporary feeling?

No. What happens is when two selfish people are together, you can never supply the other person’s needs because you are too preoccupied trying to make sure they continue to fulfill all your wants. Once they stop providing these things, there is no further foundation for the relationship.

The bible says, very specifically, Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Once again, I love my family. No matter whether I am mad at them or not, like them or not, no matter what happens if they need me I am there. I would be willing to give up something I want at a moments notice to supply something they needed. I would sacrifice myself so that they can be happy. I can do this comfortably because I also know they love me just as much. They wouldn’t let me do anything that hurt myself just to make them feel good. I can trust them with myself, with my feelings.

I have NEVER loved a woman like that. I have never fully trusted a woman with my feelings. I have never selflessly devoted myself to a woman. I have never fully cared for a woman’s needs over my own. I have never fully thought of her best interest first. There have been periods of time when I have done any one of these things, but love is not part time. When she is screaming in your face do you still love her? When that cute girl from work was flirting with you do you still love her? When she cheated on you……did you still love her? Whether we like it or not love bears and endures all things. That is straight from the bible, so I refuse to dispute it. I instead have come to a single realization.....

I will only be in love with one woman in my life. It will be the woman that is my rib. The Gift my Father has given to me. I will know that she is mine because I will share a feeling for her I have never felt before. I will be in love with her. It will not be agape love, the PERFECT LOVE God has for all of us, the love that led Him to sacrifice his only begotten Son for the payment of our sins, but it will be the closest thing that I can experience here on Earth.


To everyone else, I am sorry that I lied to you. I did though

Like You Very Much.


Edit: In writing this I want people to understand that I am not equating the love for a family and romantic love. The only connection I am making between the two is the natural, physical connection. Much as we cannot control the family we are born in to because of the blood ties that will always exist, we share that same tie with the one person God has created to be our mate. While we can choose to turn our backs on or refuse to acknowledge that person, much like some of us do to our families, that bond is unbreakable because it was something created by God. We will always have an affinity toward these people. I also chose not to discuss the love we share for our friends. This is because I quantify that love differently. It is based solely on us choosing to care for a person, and there being no ties other than the ones we, as imperfect people, have formed. Therefore, much as everything human, those ties can be broken. Family ties and the natural bond with God’s chosen mate for us are not under our control, and therefore can never be fully broken, only forcibly ignored (by us).