Taken from "Talks with our Creator" for February 14th.

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor. 13:4-7)

February 14th is a perfect day to think about love. Are you aware of how many different kinds of love there are? In English, there is only one word for love, but in Greek there are several. Valentine's Day most often, though not exclusively, seems to exemplify the romantic kind of love. But there is also a fraternal kind of love we have for close friends and family, often referred to as brotherly love. Agape love is that which we feel for all of God's creatures everywhere.  Most of us will experience all three kinds of love in our lifetimes.

And of course, there's self-love, which all of us need, but which easily becomes complicated. We need to love ourselves, but not in an egotistical way, and that is often difficult for many of us. Right after birth, we see ourselves as the center of the universe, but we soon begin to learn that there are many others sharing the universe with us.
As you progress through life, your ability to give and receive love changes. As a small child, my love was almost entirely conditional—I loved those who cared for me and provided for me. As I grew into my teens, I found myself starting to deal with the "sexual attraction" kind of love—exciting, frustrating at times, complicated, and at times frightening
in its intensity.

Maternal/paternal love is something else again, and can feel overwhelming until you get past the fear of doing something wrong and harming your child. For many of us, it may be the first time we've truly loved someone more than ourselves.  Sometimes people mistakenly feel that expanding their circle of loving relationships will diminish the quantity of love we have for those already in our lives, but this is not the case.  Families with many children may love each child in a slightly different way, but there is always enough love to go around.

Take time each day to think about all the kinds of love you experience.  The more you allow love to come into your life, the more you will find you have to give away to others.  So, what does love have to do with it?  Love is what we are.