Love wins.

A status I recently wrote on a FaceBook thread declared that I "loved" Brendan Coyle, the actor who is currently seen as Mr. Bates in Downton Abbey.

That got me thinking about the word love and how I throw it around, casually and flippantly.  I love chocolate and Starbucks.  I love this book, that movie.  I love those shoes, that scarf, those jeans.  But really, all that stuff I say I love can't love me back.  They are things, inanimate objects.

I need to be more careful how and when I use that word. Since I've been thinking about that, I catch myself deleting "love" and replacing it with "really enjoyed."  Or by saying relish, enchantment, delight, care for, fascinated with, think the world of, or any other synonyms which convey a great liking but stop short at "love."

Love should be reserved for my God, my husband, my children, my parents, my brother,  my extended family, and other people very special to me.  It is a word that describes actions within relationships.  To love means I am treating those around me with patience and kindness instead of arrogance and rudeness.  Love is not selfishness, irritable or resentful.  Love is sad when wrongdoing happens because it understands the consequences, unintended and intended, of the wrongdoing.  Love rejoices in the truth.  It is always hopeful and enduring, believing and bearing all things.  It never ends.

Brendan Coyle's time as Bates on Downton Abbey will end, just like Tom Selleck's did as Magnum PI.  These men will never even know of their adoring fan in the backwoods of northeastern North Carolina.  But my husband and my children will know me and my love for them, forever.

I have a friend whose car sports a sticker which simply states "Love wins."  I used to argue in my head with that sticker because, on the surface, I didn't believe it truly.  But as I pondered what it means to love, deeply, fully and with great abandonment, love does in fact win. So I need to make sure I am loving the right people the right way.

Always, and not just one day of the year.