Listening For Love

I read this article and found it very meaningful so here it is:

There are times when we are timid and shy about expressing the love we feel. For fear of embarrassing the other person, or ourselves, we hesitate to say the actual words ‘I love you.’ So we try to communicate the idea in other words. We say take care or don’t drive too fast or be good.

But really, these are just other ways of saying I love you. You are important to me. We are sometimes very strange people. The only thing we want to say, and the one thing that we should say, is the one thing we don’t say. And yet because the feeling is so real, and the need to say it is so strong, we are driven to use other words and the meaning never gets communicated at all so the other person is left feeling unloved and unwanted.

Therefore, we have to listen for love in the words that people are saying to us. Sometimes the explicit words are necessary, but more often, the manner of saying things is even more important. A joyous insult carries more affection and love within the sentiments which are expressed insincerely. An impulsive hug says ‘I love you’ even though the words might be saying very different.

The problem is listening for love is that we don’t always understand the language of love which the other person is using. A girl may use tears or emotions to say what she wants to say, and her boyfriend may not understand her because he expects her to be talking his language. We have to listen for love in those around us. If we listen intently we will discover that we are a lot more loved than we realise.

Listen for love and you will find that the world is a very loving place