I Love You!

“Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.”

Franklin P. Jones

The words “I love you” are three extremely powerful words. These words, used together, form a phrase that signals intense or deep affection. "I love you” indicates commitment and connection. Saying “I love you” provides affirmation for the recipient. The phrase solidifies the existence of an intimate relationship. These words and this phrase have the power to unify and to heal.

For me, “I love you” is the most difficult phrase for me to utter. As I have grown older however, I have learned to embrace the words and to use them more often, albeit, saying “I love you” is still an extremely difficult action for me. What I know for sure is that love is a significant part of the fabric of who we are and, saying “I love you” is acknowledgement and affirmation of our feelings for those for whom we truly care!

I also recognize that, over my lifetime, I have not used those words often enough to express my feelings for others. If you stick with me long enough, you may hear me talk about our inability to pop into a time capsules and later emerge to make changes in the future. Despite our grandiose feeling about ourselves, we cannot go back in time nor can we advance to the future. We must use each day as our opportunity to influence the future based on our experiences and history.

I think back to my grandmother, MaDea, telling me, “Don’t wait to give me my flowers when I am in my grave.” I better understand what she meant now. What she wanted was to know and to hear from me how much I cared for her. She wanted to hear it from me while she still could. Too often, we don’t take advantages of opportunities to provide those “flowers” to our loved ones, only to later praise and share with others how instrumental our loved ones were to our success and how much we loved them after they have gone on to glory. I wish I had allowed my Madea to hear how much I truly loved her more often. I regret not telling her I am the man I am in part due to her love and her sacrifice.

I have a challenge for you and for myself. Let us commit to holding each other accountable in doing a better job of letting those we love know our feelings. There can be so much beauty in saying “I love you” that we should never allow the important people in our lives to not hear those words uttered from our mouths, and observable in our actions, when we feel that love for them in our hearts.

So today, February 14, 2021, as we celebrate Valentine’s Day, the day of love, I encourage you to make sure those most important to you hear those three little words, “I Love You.” Make sure they see “Love” in your actions as well. Embrace this opportunity to deepen your most prized relationships. Let us all make sure give those we love their “flowers” while they are here to enjoy them!