Showing Your Love

3 Ways
Recently I asked you all to share 3 ways you show your love for others. Here are a few:

• I listen when they want to talk to me.
• I touch them (hugs, kisses and cuddles) when they need to feel loved.
• I FEED them. Food is my love language.

• I make their favorite foods for dinner (even if I don’t really like them...it means more that way!)
• I go (and even plan to go) miniature golfing for date night...and I really really don’t like miniature golf.
• I try to give lots of hugs and kisses and cuddles and TELL them. Verbal communication can really work wonders sometimes!

• I write little love notes.
• I smile at them, even when I don't feel like smiling.
• I say I love you at the end of every phone call.

These are all sweet.

Love Letters
Today I read a book called Other People's Love Letters: 150 letters you were never meant to see. It’s an eclectic collection of words scribbled on a napkin, added to a greeting card or tapped out in an e-mail.

The charming thing about this book is the authenticity of each letter, shown in the original. These were the letters that were saved and savored over the years.

Some are poetic...

I cried when I read your note, so brave and clear it pierced my heart. I am honored, awed and deeply moved by your love--gentle and soft as first snow, fierce and unshakable as steel.

Some are simple...

I shall love you until I draw my last breath, and beyond.

Some are silly...

I love you like a fat kid loves cake.

All are honest...

The last thing I want tonight: you.
You and me. You, me and an entire day
for us to spend together,
any way we choose.

And,

I never expected to find some one that meant so much to me.

They are powerful because they are real, straight from the heart, meant only for a loved one’s eyes.

Don’t be afraid to put pen to paper to be yourself, to tell your true feelings, to get personal. That’s the beauty of a love letter. Let it be awkward, sloppy, homemade, on a post-it, whatever.

Take a minute today, right now, to jot down your feelings to your loved one. It may be something they cherish for years to come.

See several actual love letters here.
More samples here.

Joseph and Emma
Joseph and Emma Smith's love letters to each other give us great insight into their relationship and the strength of their love. What a great example for us.



Elder Bednar said in the last conference, “Feeling the security and constancy of love from a spouse, a parent, or a child is a rich blessing. Such love nurtures and sustains faith in God. Such love is a source of strength and casts out fear (see 1 John 4:18). Such love is the desire of every human soul.”

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