Love is not a game and I am done pretending like it is. Society now teaches us that love is a game, some people get to play, some people do not. It teaches us that there is a certain way to talk to someone, and if we break away from that, you will scare him or her away. It doesn't matter if you meet them and everything clicks in your head and you just want to tell them you appreciate their existence. "Don't do it. You'll scare them away". I've actually heard people tell guys to not hold the door for girls because then that means they have a crush on said girl. Guys don't open the door anymore, guys don't knock at the girls' doors. Girls are fine with their boyfriends honking as an "I'm outside, hurry up" sign. People are so easily freaked out. I've talked to guys that say that, "the L word is not a word to throw around" so if they say they "love talking to you" you should feel special. However, other than that, there is nothing they do to show you they care.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that love is not a four letter word. I know girls that within weeks of knowing each other, they talk on the phone and say, "I love you girl, bye". Some will say that "it's a different kind of love", but is it? Love is just a deep appreciation of someone. It is an understanding that your life would not be the same without that person. It is knowing that even if your life does not depend on that person, that you have someone to fall back on when it feels like the world is crumbling down on you.

I will be that person, and say, love is not something you say, it is something you do. I say this to make the point that love shouldn't be something that freaks us out. Sure, everyone says they "love" everything, but the ones that truly love you will show it. Loving someone does not mean you want to get married straight away. It just means that you have respect for them, and you know how much they are worth. Being in love and loving someone is not the same thing. Being in love means that you appreciate that person above every other. It means you see their worth and their value when they can't. It means you want to stick with them through thick and thin. It means you will be patient when they are not. You will laugh with them. You will cry with them. However, in both cases, they should be able to know without you telling them. Actions do speak louder than words.

A guy I was talking to recently told me dating me would be equivalent to "taking a four credit hour course". I was hurt, at first, but then I realized he is right. Dating me is hard. Dating anyone is hard. Society, however, has done such a wonderful job at letting us forget that relationships take work. I was talking to someone that told me that online dating is going to change the world. With online dating, people stop being people and they begin to become profiles. If one doesn't work out, it takes two seconds to click on another profile and talk to someone new. On the other hand, dating is not like that. It shouldn't be. Dating is like a four hour credit course, time consuming, difficult, but in the long run, totally worth it. You are going to get out as much as you put in. If the other person tells you they feel like you don't care, telling them you do will not cut it. Dating is more than just words. If you aren't showing the other person how much they are worth to you, even if they mean the world, they will slip away.

Sometimes I wish I could tell people that I am so worth hanging around with. I find that the people I want to tell the most are the ones that place least importance in me. The thing is, I am the type of person who thinks that love isn't a four letter word. It is a lifestyle. If I meet you and I like the way you think and we make a connection, I will treat you withlove. No, I will not profess my undying love for you from the top of my roof, but I will show you the same amount of respect and appreciation that I do my friends who have been my friends for a lifetime. We should get to a point where when someone tells you that they love you, you should have seen it coming because of how they treat you.

I am not very well-versed in the bible, and I can't think of a time where Jesus literally said, "I love you". Nevertheless, I do know that He showed us that He did all throughout His life. He became the hungriest and the poorest so that He could feed the hungriest and love the poorest. He thirsts so much for the love for souls that He gave us His everlasting love without any guarantee that we would love Him back. It just begs the question, "if Jesus loves you so much, why can't I?" As someone who usually cares more about people than what they care about me, I'll be the first to tell you that loving without return hurts like nothing else. Thinking, "why don't they do this for me? I would have, and have done it for them time after time" hurts. Having people tell you they have feelings for you and then being able to completely shut them off hurts. But for one person that feels loved, it is completely worth it. If you have ever sat with a lonely person, cried with a sad person, or been that person that doesn't feel loved, I appreciate you, and I love you. God loves you. You're noticed. Know that love has four letters, but it shouldn't be a four letter word. It should be a way of life.