F A M I LY
Is Love a Noun or a Verb? Basic English prepared us to be better people By Pastor David Bowen Standing Stones Community Church Standing Stones Christian Academy
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here are surveys for almost anything and everything. Recently I came across an unusual survey. Participants were asked this question...... what three-word sentence would you most like to hear? The top three answers, in reverse order, were: 3.) Supper is ready 2.) I forgive you 1.) I love you People want to hear, “I love you.” People need to hear, “I love you”! Remember back in junior high English class when you learned about nouns and verbs? A noun is a person, place or thing and a verb is an action step. Well who knew back then that English class was preparing us to be better people? Because love is a verb, it’s an action. Unfortunately, too many people treat love as a noun—a thing. They go about their day to day without acting in love. How does one love other people with action? I have three daughters. I love each of them very much. However, how I express my love for them is different. Why? Because they are different. My oldest daughter loves to watch old movies. As a child she loved to watch children’s shows. Oftentimes I would hear,
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“Daddy, want to watch with me?” To be honest, I really didn’t have any desire to watch another episode of “Blue’s Clues,” but to her it wasn’t about the TV show. It was about me sitting with her and giving her my time. That’s all she really wanted—for me to sit and just be with her. What I was telling her without using words was, “You matter to me. I love you.” People need to know that they are loved. I was able to communicate my love for her by watching a child’s TV show. As she grew up, we stopped watching “Blue’s Clues,” but we still just sit and spend time together and she knows how much her daddy loves her. Why? Because I am still giving her my time. I am still saying, “I love you.” My middle daughter likes to talk. I mean about anything! How I speak with her, not to her, lights her up or shuts her down. How I show love to her is through words. As a child she would want to tell me all about the games she was playing with her dolls or what she was going to name her new stuffed animal. She would have full-blown conversations about such important matters! It took some patience to participate in such conversations but by doing so she knew her daddy loved her. Today, we still have lengthy conversations and she still knows her daddy loves her!
My youngest daughter, from the time she was young, would stop at any time of the day, stop whatever she was doing, and play catch. She loves to toss a ball around. She’s not a deep talker. She doesn’t sit long enough to watch old movies but she loves to play ball. When I initiate that activity, she’s all in! She knows she has my attention and she’s enjoying our interaction. She knows her daddy loves her. How easy is it to sit and watch an old movie, to have a conversation or to throw a ball around? In doing these things, my girls hear the sentence people want to hear most—“I love you.” Good old junior high English class, the difference between a noun and a verb, who knew!
