This month is the month for LOVE. We are bombarded with media programs, advertisements and songs bringing the worldly aspects of love to our attention. Yet seldom do we hear about the real and true faces of love.

Faces of love … my mom and dad embracing each other after a disagreement, Mom has made a pie, Dad has brought her some wildflowers … Mama Nanie, Jun’s mother, caring for Papa Catan during his last illness … the Golden Wedding anniversary of our dear friends Philip and Elsa Anievas … Mama Nanie shepherding 13 of her apo during their summer vacation in Palinpinon … the laughing faces of our children and their children during family gatherings … the wonder on the face of our great granddaughter when she took her first solo steps … a loving embrace with my husband … so many, many faces of love …

I’d like to share a few thoughts on love from my scrapbook of clippings that I’ve kept for years hoping that these verses will help us focus more on the true meaning of LOVE, instead of just the commercialized version of this emotion of the heart.

Love
It can’t be hidden on a shelf.
It can’t be bought. It can’t be sold.
It can’t be kept within one’s self
and it can’t be put just on hold.
Love must be ready for worthy deeds.
It must not be pushed out of sight.
It must help people with special needs,
and act like a guiding light.
Love should forgive, to be forgiven,
from God’s presence it must not stray.
Its name is LOVE – a gift from Heaven.
But love is nothing till it is given away.
By John and Edna Massimilla

Love and Care
The greatest thrills of life and love that fill us with content
Are gifts of grace we give away and ask no compliment.
It might be just a helping hand we give to one in need,
Or just a gift of caring grace … when nothing else succeeds.
A little bit of love and care that comes from you and me
Can lift a heart of grief and tears from days of misery;
And it is heavenly ordained that we, of faith, impart
The love and care God gives to us to share with crying hearts.
By Michael Dubina

And perhaps the most important Love is God’s love for us as penned by Bess Fountain in this verse:

God’s love is like an ocean or a calm and peaceful sea,
His love dates from creation, it envelopes you and me.
We can never overtake it, we can never use it up,
It is boundless, it is endless, and it overflows our cup.

This Valentine month of LOVE I challenge you to look around you to see how many faces of love you can see … 10, 100, 1000 … How about your own face … is it a face of LOVE?

I pray that we may all experience true love in our life, throughout our life, and always have enough love in our heart to share with others, to be a face of love to everyone around us.