What’s Love Got To Do With It? By Bettye Jamerson

While society is so obsessed with the whole notion of self improvement and discovering the fountain of youth through everything from expensive lotions and creams to diet pills (fondly referred to as diet supplements) and potions, not to mention the ever boring age old phenomenon called exercise, we have failed to incorporate one very important concept. We have failed to incorporate what I think is the most important concept of all and that is to live our lives through the choice of love, loving life and loving others. How does love fit in here?

Love is the most powerful force in the universe and as a human race, we can benefit greatly from choosing to extend love to our fellow man and not just to our immediate family and inner circle of friends and acquaintances. So what does love have to do with self improvement and remaining youthful?

For starters, it has been my experience that people who choose to live their life extending charity to others, (charity is another word for love) have a much healthier and happier disposition than those who choose a pessimistic way of life. And a healthier, happier disposition leads to a better quality of life.

In my own life, I noticed that my outlook on life drastically changed. I began to concentrate on solutions rather than problems, options rather than situations and progression rather than stagnation. Somehow life became easier to live, not to mention healthier also. By that I mean, I no longer focused on the negative but the positive and that positive energy began to draw people and things in my life that possessed that same positive ness about life and life’s challenges. You become more accepting of others that look, think and act differently than you.

Because love is the most powerful force in the universe, it can remove barriers in our lives that no other force can come close to removing. Love has no race barrier, no religious barrier, no sex barrier, no language barrier and no educational barrier. Love has a sound and familiarity that every heart always hears and it is easily recognized and accepted. Love will cover a multitude of wrongs in your life.

Now there are different relationships that demonstrate love, but the same unconditional love exists in them all or should exist in them all. We have platonic relationships, family relationships, business and personal relationships and last but not least, marriage relationships. Regardless of the relationship, love should be the foundational driving force in them all. I have found that relationships based on unconditional love require considerably less effort to maintain. There is this genuine acceptance of others that makes the relationship work. This acceptance comes with respect, consideration, trust, encouragement, a non-judgmental attitude, forgiveness and a desire to always help and never tear down. This is where the “unconditional” love is clearly demonstrated. Is she really for real—one might ask? Indeed I am. It comes down to simply choosing to live our lives through the choice of “love—unconditional love”.

I believe in the power of the spoken word and as a result of my choosing to live my life through love, it made such a tremendous difference in my own life that I daily recited what I call my love confession. Over the course of one (1) month, this confession transformed my life from the inside out and as I share it with you, I challenge you to try it and see if it makes a difference in your life also. Enjoy.

“I endure long and I am patient and kind; I am never envious nor do I boil over with jealousy; I am not boastful or vain glorious and I do not display myself overbearingly; I am not conceited, arrogant or inflated with pride; I am not rude and I do not act unbecomingly, The love of God in me does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for I am not self-seeking; I am not touchy, fretful or resentful; I take no account of the evil done to me and I pay no attention to a suffered wrong. I do not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but I rejoice when right and truth prevail. I bear up under anything and everything that comes, and I am ever ready to believe the best of every person. My hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and I endure everything without weakening. I never fail because LOVE never fails.”