Love and Loneliness

"You do not have to help them love you."

When a single, young(er) individual solicited my advice about love recently, my husband offered that sentiment.  Looking back on my own experiences in life and love, I can see the wisdom in what Blaine said.  I remember very clearly the attraction and sometimes all-consuming emotions that play out during that time of life. Love was so FRAGILE to my mind then.   It seemed like porcelain or glass.  That if I made one wrong move, it would burst into a million pieces and that the other person's deck of devotion would crumble.  I have learned over the past ten years that love, true love, is so strong.  As Paul states in Corinthians, it

'bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.  It NEVER fails.' (1 Corinthians 13)

It stays up all night with a crying baby.  It waits patiently for a spouse who struggles.  It suffers long with a teenager caught in destructive habits. It survives the loss of health, the loss of a job, the loss of a child.  It turns a cheek when its own is spat upon. It crosses a tempestuous sea to offer a hand to a friend's failing faith. It climbs a hill after a long, hard night and lights itself upon wood to chase away the darkness.  It raises dead, overcomes hell, and wipes away all tears.  That is true love, and the hallmarks of it are in everything that is centered on Jesus Christ.  Even the beginnings of this love are trans-formative.  It can go longer, work harder, and get more done than any other power out there.  You want to solve the energy crises--create TRUE LOVE. Love is at the root of all good.
Allow me to share a favorite scripture:

"Intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own" (D&C 88:40)

Like finds like.  We attract what we are; therefore, it behooves us to assimilate the kind of love one father described to his son,

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." (Moroni 7:45-47)

Charity is not something we have.  It is something we are.

I don't think this struggle we are in is a numbers game.  Satan prides himself on outsmarting, outmaneuvering, and outnumbering his opponent.  He who cannot comprehend love overwhelms our senses with feelings of isolation, inadequacy, and intimidation.  He lives and breeds an existence of loneliness.  Our prophet knows this.  Why do you think he talked about grounding ourselves in DUTY and finding the courage to stand alone!  

We are not going to win because we are bigger and better.  We will win because their is 'more with us than be with them.' There is more substance to who we are and what we fight for.  The standard has been raised  
"In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children" (Alma 46:12) 

It is about the heart, and we've got it.  More on that tomorrow. . .