The other day, I ran across this quote from a bell hooks book. Well, I didn’t really run across it. I read it. Either way, I really like it and want to share it with you.

“While ours is a nation wherein the vast majority of citizens are followers of religious faiths that proclaim the transformative power of love…many of us are not sure what we mane when we talk about love or how to express love…. We must dare to acknowledge how little we know of love in both theory and practice…. We year to end the lovelessness that is so pervasive in our society…. Only love can heal the wounds of the past.” 

Our world desperately needs the healing that comes only through love. Our society and our communities are calling out for love. And family is one of the best, if not the best, places for a person to learn the practical ways of expressing love. It is in family that we first experience someone else caring for us, supporting us, and meeting our emotional needs. It’s in family that we learn the necessity of considering the other person. It’s in family that we learn to care for one another and what it means to “look out for the other guy’s” interests and needs. In other words, we need to practice love in our families  and teach one another how to love. Really, we will teach our family about love whether we do so intentionally or not. If we do not become intentional in loving, or if we think love is unnecessary, we may find ourselves teaching the lessons of “unlove” through our words and actions…and suffering the consequences as a result. How can we teach love in our families? By developing a home environment in which each person treats the others with honor and grace. Here are some specific behaviors you can practice that will both build an environment of love and nurture that environment of love.

• Treat one another with kindness. Serve one another.
• Treat one another with respect.
• Consider how your words and behaviors impact the other person. Let that awareness influence how you speak and act.
• Let the needs and desires of the other person impact your behaviors.
• Let the emotional vulnerabilities of those in the home influence your words and behaviors.
• Share grace. Forgive.
• Sacrifice. Healthy sacrifice for one another enhances relationship and commitment to relationship. It reveals a depth of love that strengthens relationship.
• Make gratitude explicit.

When we make these practices the norm of our family relationships, love will grow in our families. Ideally, if enough families practice and grow in love, love will flow from our families to our friends and neighbors. The expressions of love will form into streams coursing through our neighborhoods, pooling in our communities, and flooding into our world. Don’t wait for the idea. Be the start of that ideal by living it out today.