I used to write things down a lot because I find it gets too noisy inside my head if I don’t get the words out. Or maybe it’s not that there are too many thoughts crammed up there, maybe it’s more a case of too much space so they echo…

Anyway something that I started thinking about last night and continued to think about today is love. Love really does make the world go round. It is the root of everything I should base my life on. There are so many meanings to the word, I love chocolate and I love my family. But then I’m sure I’ll love my future husband with a completely different love to my chocolate love. I do think about it a lot because I do say it a lot. I like people to know when they are loved, as I like to know when I am. I think it’s the most important thing you can tell someone- anyone- not necessarily in a romantic way, but in a way that they know they are truly appreciated. So there’s this song, it’s one of my favourite songs of all time because it sums up everything I feel about love- the romantic kind. It’s by one of the most beautiful females to currently walk the earth with one of the few female voices I like to listen to. Her name is Brooke Fraser and the song is called Arithmetic.

I’ve been staring at the sky tonight marvelling and passing time
Wondering what to do with daylight until I can make you mine
You are the one I want, you are the one I want.

I’ve been thinking of changing my mind, it never stays the same for long
But of all the things I know for sure, you’re the only certain one
You are the one I want, you are the one I want.

I’ve been counting up all my wrongs, one sorry for each star
See I’d apologize my way to you if the heavens stretched that far
You are the one I want, you are the one I want.

I won’t find what I’ve been looking for if I only see by keeping score
Coz I know now you are so much more than arithmetic
Coz if I add, if I subtract, if I give it all, try to take some back
I’d forgotten the freedom that comes from the fact that you are the sum
So you are the one I want

When the years are showing on my face and my strongest days are gone
When my heart and flesh depart this place from a life that sung your song
You’ll still be the one I want, you’ll still be the one I want.

The thing that occurred to me last night is that this song doesn’t mention the word ‘love’ a single time, and yet it sums up everything I feel about it- the minutes that seems endless until the time when you know they are yours for sure, how my mind changes every 5 minutes, how I make new plans and forget old ones, but once I’ve made up my mind it’s definite, how I am not perfect, how I will get things wrong, and how I will probably spend eternity apologising for my mistakes, how love is so much more that just two people who happen to work together, it’s a delicate and intricate plan that has led the two people together to create something that will last even past old age and death, a plan that doesn’t happen by accident, but a plan that is overseen by the One who created the stars that number my mistakes, the One who created time and breath and life and love.

My favourite description of love comes from the most reliable source. The NLT version of 1 Corinthians 13:4 says

 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
It does not demand its own way.
It is not irritable and it keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

I’ve heard it a hundred times before at weddings and Sunday School and all the rest, but I had a new revelation about this verse that takes it from the romantic sense into the everyday sense. I took a bit of poetic licence and added a few words, just to make it make sense to me.

If I have love I will be patient and kind. If I have love I won’t be jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
I won’t demand my own way.
I won’t be irritable or keep record of being wronged. 
I will not rejoice about injustice but rejoice whenever the truth wins out.
If I have love I will never give up, never lose faith, always be hopeful, and endure through every circumstance.

Then I did the same thing with Galatians 5:22-23:

The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

My version:

If I have love, I will be joyful, patient, kind to others, good-natured, faithful and loyal, gentle and self-controlled.

So back at the start I said love makes the world go round. I also said it’s the root of what I should base my life on. Honestly, more often than not I don’t live with love. So this year that will be my resolution- to be a person that loves. Not anything in particular- I don’t want to be known as the girl who loves chocolate or is in love with a boy, but a person that just loves in general. And I titled this post “Love #1″ because I’m sure it won’t be the last you’ve heard from me on this topic. I’ll let you know when I think of something else…