Why I <3 our prophet ... and In which I get a little preachy, I think.

(Also, why I <3 the personalized Google homepage)

As I may have mentioned in previous posts, I very much am a fan of the Google personalized homepages. Michael and I both have our own set up.
(His is very nice and organized. One main page for weather, email, and some news feeds. One page for comics.)
(Mine? Well, it's organized ... for me. I have a main page with my email, some bookmarks, weather, the Nat'l Geographic Photo of the day, the moon cycle, a couple widgets for friends -- like Sheri's widget and the countdown until Bri gets back to town. Then I have a news page, a comics/fun stuff page, one for "smarts" with feeds to Neatorama and mental_floss and such, one full of blogs, one full of crafting blogs, one full of parenting blogs ... Yes, I am a little OCD, no?)

BUT, as I was saying (because I so WAS saying this), on my "News" page, I have some RSS feeds for Church News and such. I also added widgets for quotes of the day for Gordon B. Hinckley, Neal A. Maxwell (who still is one of my favorite apostles. I was SO. DANG. BUMMED when he passed away), and (of course, our living prophet) Thomas S. Monson.

Today the quote from Monson (I don't know how the widget's creator has them organized. For all I know, they're completely random. No bother to me.) is

Choose your love. Love your choice.

It just speaks to me. If you love something/someone, choose them. If you've chosen them/it, love them or it.

So many relationships would be better if this advice was followed.

If you love learning, choose to expand your education.
If you love sports, choose to practice and better yourself for them.
If you love your spouse, choose him or her. Let them feel/know that you love them.
If you've chosen to tie your lives together, don't allow yourself to "fall out of love."

Which bring me to another quote that I feel is very relevant, especially in this day and age:

Love is a verb.

I've heard it around too mnay times to give it an attribution. If anyone knows who said it, let me know. I'll correct it and give you total props, okay??

But, really. You can choose whom you love. You can choose to treat people with love.

Just as you can choose to withdraw your love. Which can be really sad.

Love is not just that little rush of hormones and fluttery-feelings. Love is something that one DOES.

I like to liken it to parenthood: You love your children. Even though sometimes they make you want to rip out your hair and devour them like hamsters do to their young.

You spend time with your children. You praise them. You try to teach them and to lead them so that they will be better than you were ... and in doing so, you become a better person (since everyone learns best by having a good example).

Why can't we do this with others in our lives?

I have to work at this, too. Sometimes I get a little offended. (Truly, I'm still coming to grips with a "mentor" teacher <-- Since I still can't refer to her without putting mentor in quotes, you know that I'm still not completely over it.) I need to buck up and start loving the people that have offended me. Because, really, they probably need my love most of all. And, truly, I probably will grow the most by learning to love them.

So, yeah. That's really my thought process today.

I mean, if I use an example from my marriage -- Michael likes having a clean house (Truly, so do I, but I don't always love the work that I have to put into it. :P). When I've let the house go, he starts to feel like I don't appreciate/love him.
So, an easy way to let Michael know that I do care is to have the house tidied ... or at least don't let it get too out of control (since a tidy house and toddlers are sometimes mutually exclusive).

Suggested reading: The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.
Really, I think his books (he has some variations. I own "the Five Love Languages for Couples". The books all have some different case studies/examples, but the lessons from each are the same. Follow the link to the website. There's even a test there!

(For the record, I'm a "Words of Affirmation" type.)