I still vividly remember in second grade, after I'd successfully locked my pink, princess bike into the rack outside the brick schoolhouse and bid my brothers goodbye on the round steps to the doors, I walked delightfully over the bustling, narrow hallway to my locker and swung it open with delight. But to my great astonishment, I met eyes with a big, fluffy teddy bear who proudly wore a crimson bow around his neck and held a great big box of chocolate. My heart began to pound, and my neck tingled with warmth. I swiftly hung my backpack and lunchbox on the hook and shut the locker with a settle smirk over my lips.
It hadn't been the first gift I'd received from the flirty boy in my class that month. Each new week, I'd found something new from him in my locker--flower bouquets, stuffed animals, chocolates, etc. But we were only seven and the teacher abruptly stopped the conflict of the crush after my mother reported the valentine incident. However, that experience pressed a question in my heart that constantly dances in my mind to this day. I watch while kisses are passed between senior couples at church parties, and newlyweds clasp hands in grocery stores, and again the question beckons in my mind so tenderly, what is true love? I have a desire to uncover its truths and divinity through the words and experiences of prophets and relatives year by year, and at last, I begin to shape the righteous love I want.
I've come to realize that true love doesn't come by Hallmark cards, flower bouquets, and teddy bears, but is the pure, selfless charity of Christ which binds individuals together for the rest of eternity. True love is deep and pure, virtuous and lovely. It comes with intentionally learning about someone and finding joy in what makes them who they are. It's seeing one deeply and appreciating every single dream and intention of their heart. True love begins as a friendship wherein two unique persons are bound by a beautiful likeness of laughter, tears, smiles, dreams, kisses, and even impractical arguments. No matter the circumstance, the one, if they truly do love, should never give up on the other. They should be willing to fight for the other, forgive the other, wait for the other, and sustain the other in all things "virtuous, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy."
President Spencer W Kimball once explained, "What is love? ... Love is far more than physical attraction. It is inclusive and comprehensive. There must be faith and confidence and understanding and partnership. There must be common ideals and standards. There must be a great devotion and companionship. Love is cleanliness and progress and sacrifice and selflessness. This kind of love never tires or wanes but lives through sickness and sorrow, poverty and privation, accomplishment and disappointment, time and eternity.... There must be a forgetting of self and a constant concern for the other."
True love ultimately draws from the Lord, for it is only His love that is priceless and unfailing. It was God's intention to bring a man and woman together in righteous love and matrimony, as it was in the beginning with Adam and Eve, so they could bind themselves together in His covenant and fulfill the promises of posterity in order to receive celestial glory in the eternities. The righteous love I surely am earnest to find one day is the love that leads my spouse and I under the holy roof of the temple, where we can stare into the mirrors of the sealing room and promise to each other and the Lord that we will never fail to keep the laws and covenants of the Lord and seek for His abiding guidance in all things. Our love would give us the commitment to do whatever it takes to reach celestial life, and we'd be bestowed with the grand endowment of creating life and fulfilling our roles as father and mother hand in hand together; to nurture our children in faith and purity, so they can one day reach the Lord's castle and make eternal covenants with Him.
The righteous dream of love I have isn't about teddy bears, chocolates, and roses, but comes as a commandment from the Lord in a glorious way. God intended us to "love one another" and strive to reach His castle where we can be sealed for eternity and strive for the celestial glory of eternal life with our beloved, eternal companions. What a beautiful thing it can be with the Lord in our visions! Surely, love with the Lord enables us to reach our "happily ever after."
xo
Makenzie
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