Love, Research, and Valentine's Day

Today, if I have a bit more time, I may pick up my romance story/novel, True Love's Gifts and work on it a bit more. Romance writing challenges me, and yet, my research compels me to pick it up again today.

I've been reading The Love Dare, thinking about the original St. Valentine and his story of sacrificial love, and thinking over some of those "love" scriptures that I like so well.

"Love requires thoughtfulness - on both sides - the kind that builds bridges through the constructive combination of patience, kindness and selflessness." - from p.18 of The Love Dare

"Two are better than one,
because they have good return for their work:
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up!
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!
Also, if two lie down together, they will
keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrendur my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but always rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. for we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when perfection appears, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13

Love is more than romance, more than rose petals, and more than candlelight. Love is every moment, includes the thorns and roots of the rosebush, and embraces the light of day.

What does love mean to you?