{"id":1055,"date":"2015-02-03T21:31:29","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T03:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/?p=1055"},"modified":"2015-02-14T21:35:41","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T03:35:41","slug":"love-actually-why-love-is-so-much-more-than-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/2015\/02\/03\/love-actually-why-love-is-so-much-more-than-valentines-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Love, Actually: Why Love is So Much More than Valentine’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Even before you read the article, know this: God loves you and Christ died for you! “For God so loved<\/span>\u00a0the world that he gave<\/span>\u00a0his one and only Son,<\/span>\u00a0that whoever believes<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in him shall not perish but have eternal life<\/a>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

My most recent article is up over at Darling Magazine<\/a>, and it’s a piece I’ve written about two of life’s most important things: love and gratitude.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The impending Valentine\u2019s Day can usher in a wealth of emotions: longing, excitement, hurt, confusion, sorrow, hope \u2014 or some combination of all of these. For some of us, the holiday offers new opportunities to showcase affection toward our significant other; for others, it is a reminder that we don\u2019t have an other<\/em> to lavish affection upon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Darling.Love<\/a><\/div>\n
But although love is what Valentine\u2019s Day announces from candy store windows and card aisles, what the holiday has come to represent is a narrow understanding of the sentiment.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\nLove<\/em>. It’s such a small word for such a large thing.<\/strong> One day could never do it justice because love, in its many forms, isn\u2019t necessarily best seen between two lovers. Don\u2019t get me wrong; I\u2019m deeply in love with my husband and have been for a decade. Romantic love is something I cherish and am grateful for, but my life would be much less whole if this was the only love that I experienced. Love manifests in so many different ways, ways too numerous to count.<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Love: the parent who calms the crying child in the night.
\nLove: the friend who brings the ice cream and sits with you in the tears.
\nLove: the boyfriend who speaks highly of you when you’re not around.
\nLove: the co-worker who picks up your slack on a project you\u2019re too exhausted to finish.
\nLove: the barista who overlooks your demanding voice because she knows you\u2019re tired.
\nLove: the spouse who chooses you over and over and over.
\nLove: the boss who praises you in front of others.
\nLove: the friend who texts just to make sure you\u2019re ok.
\nLove: the child who wants to sit on your lap to read just one more book.
\nLove: the roommate who does the dishes. Again.
\nLove: the stranger who offers you a kind word on a difficult day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While one day will never encompass the many sides of love, a day centered on love can \u2014 if we allow it to \u2014 be so much more than the exchange of gifts and candy, so much more than a nice dinner or a piece of jewelry. It can be a day that points us to a deeper reflection of all of the facets of love that we have in our lives. It can be a day, ultimately, for thankfulness.<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Please\u00a0read the rest of the article\u00a0here, at Darling Magazine<\/a>–and let me know what kinds of love you are grateful for in your life!\u00a0(image from Mikaela Hamilton via Darling Magazine)<\/em><\/div>\n

\"Valentines<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even before you read the article, know this: God loves you and Christ died for you! “For God so loved\u00a0the world that he gave\u00a0his one and only Son,\u00a0that whoever believes\u00a0in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” My most recent article is up over at Darling Magazine, and it’s a piece I’ve written about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,21,5,6,133,23],"tags":[357,124,351,353,354,64,355,356,352,350,349,343],"class_list":["post-1055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-friendship","category-guest-post","category-life","category-marriage","category-parenting","category-writing","tag-darling","tag-darling-magazine","tag-gratefulness","tag-gratitude","tag-holiday","tag-love","tag-lovers","tag-romantic-love","tag-thankfulness","tag-true-love","tag-valentine","tag-valentines-day","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Darling.Love-Actually.jpg?fit=1050%2C750&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1055"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1103,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions\/1103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}