Don't let anyone steal your heart.

(It's been a while since I've posted, I know. But, here goes...)

Love. It's a complex word. Dictionary.com defines it as, "a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person." But what does love really mean?

There are probably hundreds of songs that talk about love or have the word love in the title. If I sat down and looked up all the songs with love in the lyrics or the title, I'm sure I would come up with close to a million--if not more--songs! The idea of love is not limited to secular music, though. A lot of Christian music dwells on the idea of God's love, or loving your brother (phileo love), which is a good thing, of course.

Millions of people get married each year in the name of love. Within the first two to four years, however, about half of those marriages fall victim to divorce. People date and give their hearts away in the name of "love". Unwed men and women move in together and have children, all in the name of "love".

But what does it mean to love?

The word love, used as a noun, can mean a feeling or action bestowed upon another person. As an adverb, it can describe how someone looks. As a verb, it can be used to tell how someone feels toward another person.

However, loving is more than feeling or actions, I believe. I was watching 19 Kids & Counting last week with my mom and niece. We were watching the episode about Jessa and Ben's wedding. Something the minister said really struck me. He said that love is not a feeling; you won't always feel like loving him or her.

Love is devotion. Love is caring for someone, even when you don't feel anything for them. Love is not sex or words. Love is caring in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer. Love is taking care of her when she's sick. Love is asking how his day at work was. Love is wanting to be with each other, no matter how hard things get.

And now I come to the topic of kissing. The Duggar family believe that you shouldn't kill until your wedding day, and I feel the same way. (Obviously, I'm still young, but I know what juvenile love looks like.) In my opinion, you really should restrain yourself from touching or even kissing until after your wedding day. Touching leads to other thing, of course; but a lot of believe believe a simple kiss won't hurt anything. I believe a simple kiss can tear your whole morality, purity, and relationship down. Let me explain why.

Kissing is an outward action. But where do your outward actions come from? Why do you do the things you do? It's not because you think of doing something, I believe; really, your brain is controlled by your heart, physically and spiritually. No, when you do something--like go to church, or not go to church, or listen to a certain song, or go to a certain site--you choose to do it in your heart. Your spirit choose if it is moral or not, depending on the standards you have accepted, and lets your conscious mind decide if it wants to do it or not.

Basically, I believe that when you kiss, you do it because your heart--your soul--feels you should do it. Why would your heart feel you should kiss someone? Because you love them. Every time you kiss someone, you are basically saying, "I love you; I care for you, and I will never leave you. I will be with you through thick and thin. I will never let you go." And some people try to take advantage of this. They try to get a girl or guy to kiss them, and then take advantage of their physical benefits.

So when you kiss someone, you're saying you love them. Then what? If you love someone, you want to get to know them, right? Well, kissing, in one way or another, can lead to touching, which leads to other thing. Also, when you kiss someone, you give them a part of your heart. What happens if they break your heart? I believe you should wait to kiss until your wedding day. Not only should your body be pure before marriage, but so should your heart.

So that's my stance on love. I know not everybody is going to agree with everything I said, and that's fine. Everyone has their opinions; and like I said, I'm still young. I don't know everything, and I don't claim to. I just want to give my thoughts and feelings on this very serious subject. However, we should agree on basic premise: You should keep your body, and heart, pure before marriage. Don't let someone come along and seduce you into doing something you know is wrong. Don't get pulled into juvenile love.

Don't let anyone steal your heart.


Until later,

Brandon