I was looking at the dictionary awhile back and came to a conclusion. There are three words that I believe are vital in our relationships with those we love.
I remember when I first heard those three words spoken to me. I really can’t tell you what age I was; however, I heard them many times from my parents until the day they died. I heard them spoken to me time after time by my grandparents and other loved ones.
I heard them so many times that I guess I never took time to really understand what they really meant to me.
As time passed, little by little, those people that spoke those three words to me slowly passed away and I heard them no more spoken by them. However, the number of times I heard them, the way they spoke them, and what they mean to me, I will never forget.
Those three words I am writing about are “I love you!”
Believe it or not, there are some people in our world who have never heard those three words.
It was 53 years ago, at the altar of Youngstown First Church of the Nazarene in Youngstown, Ohio, that I told my dear wife, Myrna, those three words — “I love you!” For the next 53 years, I told her several times every day, “I love you!” I meant it every one of those times and still do to this very moment.
“Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same” [Helen Keller].
I am so thankful for the 53 years of marriage with my dear wife, Myrna, and I now speak from the voice of experience.
Whatever you do today, use those three words over and over again. You will never wear them out. The more you use them the better they are. Unfortunately, there comes a day when some of the ones you spoke those three words to are no longer on this earth.. So say them as often as you can and mean them from your heart.
Love is indestructible;
Its holy flame forever burneth;
From heaven it came,
to heaven returneth.
–Robert Southey
If I had one wish on this earth, it would be to say once again those three words to Myrna, “I love you!”
“And now abideth faith, hope, and love these three, but the greatest of these is love.” [1 Corinthians 13:13.
THINK ABOUT IT!
