All you need is love.....

Aaah love!

I love, love. I love to love. I love to be loved. I love to watch others love. I just love, love.

It's not all about the romantic kind of love - the kind of love that makes it hard to breathe, your palms all sweaty etc -  but love between friends, sisters and brothers, parent and child. It is what make the world go round after all.

I feel so blessed to experience all of these different facets of love in my life.

I still (after 16 years) love my husband (in the breathy, sweaty kind of way - poor Nev) and he loves me. I have two parents who love me very much and a sister who loves me too. My children love me, and I have probably the world's most wonderful friends. And most importantly, I know my heavenly father loves me beyond description. (I also have a ten week old puppy that truly believes I am his entire world!!!)

So who am I to deserve this? Nobody. Just me. But all the same - I am loved. And I am forever grateful.

I recently read this list of 10 points for love in a lasting marriage. They are so good I wanted to share them....

1. God has you here to serve one another. Love acted out is serving.
2. Women need respect and nurturing. Husbands, love your wife so she knows you'd lay your life down for her. Woo her and admire her. Share a hobby or just find soemthing fun you can do together.
3. Laugh often.
4. Be patient. Love crumbles quickly under the weight of unmet expectations.
5. Spend more time trying to fix yourself than your spouse.
6. Keep short accounts. The Bible says "Do not let the sun go down while you are angry". Make it a habit to forgive.
7. Determine up front that divorce is not an option.
8. Learn each other's love languages. Not all people show love or receive it the same way. Love is better received when it is in the language that person speaks. (Love languages are:  acts of service, touch, gifts, time and words of affirmation.)
9. Words of affirmation are a love language for all men.
10. Men are born to be leaders. They cannot lead unless women give them the confidence to do so. Build him up.

So let's love one another, love our lives, love our God, and perhaps even our puppies (especially seeing as they've stopped chewing on the couch!)