Love is an Ink-less Pen

We throw around the word love so often. I'm sure that most people say love more than once a day to or about someone or something they do not truly love. Oh you "love" video games? Really?

Dictionary.com defines love as:

love

  [luhv]  noun, verb, loved, lov·ing.

noun

1.

a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

2.

a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.

3.

sexual passion or desire.

4.

a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.

5.

(used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie,love?

So you "love" your video games? You have a profound, tender, passionate affection for them? Or do you have a warm personal feeling of attachment or deep affection for them. I would assume you don't have a sexual passion or desire for them? Or might your games be able to feel love, your games are a sweetheart? Or do you refer to your games as "love", "Oh hey I'm just gonna go play my love, Halo, real quick."? No?
So you don't love your video games then, right?

Maybe that's not all love is, maybe there is more than just that textbook definition, but that at least gives us somewhere to start.

Well what about our friends? We tell them we love them all the time. Not saying you can't love your friends. Very possible. But do we truly love every friend we say we love? I can't imagine we do. We throw the word around so trivially. It means nothing most time we say it. I enjoy spending times with my friends. I take delight in their presence. But do I really, truly love them? Some, yes. Most, love might be too strong a word for that.

The Bible defines love too.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Love is not self-seeking, it is not proud, it keeps no record of wrongs. That is some powerful stuff right there. And just to throw it around the way we do? It seems unacceptable to me.

So why do we do it?
Blame it on the English language? We don't have enough words to differentiate how we feel? Well the amount of words in the English language is so hard to determine because there are so many, and we keep adding new words every day. That can't be it.
Maybe we just haven't experienced real love? That's a person to person thing though. And I know plenty of people who claim to love things that may not deserve love, like a pair of shoes or a favorite food, who say they do know what love is because they have experienced it.
Honestly, I can't tell you why we do it. But we all do; I do it all the time. I wish I didn't but sometimes we slip up.

Maybe we need to clear some things up.
Love is not infatuation (foolish or all-absorbing passion).
Love is not lust (intense sexual desire).
Love is not enjoyment (a particular form or source of pleasure)

We use the word love so much that it becomes old, meaningless, useless; it becomes like an old ink-less pen.     We can throw the empty pen around, for what? But the pen is useless and if we are not careful, soon all love will be is an ink-less pen. Cold and empty, no true meaning. But that's not what I want love to be. I want love to be passionate, to be caring, to be amazing and wonderful, not to be self-seeking, to not be jealous or keep records of wrongs. I want love to be happy, truthful, important, meaningful. I want love to be real. I believe that love, the real, true, pure emotion of love is the most powerful thing in the world.