"The day you love me"

My friends make me think a lot... and between the last Thursday and Saturday two male friends have made me think about the love. I've never written a blog on this topic. But I must admit that love is also powerful to manage change ... Ok .. I go ...!! Love is indeed a wonderful thing. But it is something that we should be certain about, least we spend many sleepless nights in deep thoughts and confusion. Sadly, determining the veracity of love is not always easy. Sometimes, a deep infatuation is equated with the same. It is a very common question, "How can I tell I'm in love?", but it is not an easy question to answer. What feels like love to one person may be nothing more than attraction to another. Some people fall in and out of love quickly and often while others are never really in love as much as they are in lust. This can get confusing when you are a teen because romantic love is a relatively new concept for you and you don't know what to expect. You are overwhelmed with all sorts of new feelings and social pressures. They are confusing. What is love? What makes you want a romantic relationship with one person and not another? How does your heart choose a partner? Why does love end? These questions can't be easily answered. One of the most confusing quasi-love feelings is lust. Lust is a very powerful, very intense feeling of physical attraction toward another person. Lust is mainly sexual in nature - the attraction is superficial based on instant chemistry rather than genuine caring. Usually we lust after people we do not know well, people we still feel comfortable fantasizing about. It is very common for people to confuse lust for love. But why? What is it about lust and love that make them so easy to mix up? If lust is all about sex, how can a relationship without sex be about lust? Teens struggle with this because they see lust in the Biblical sense, but lust isn't that sinister. Lust is about physical attraction and acting ONLY on physical attraction. Love is about much more than that. Yet many teens (and to be fair, many adults) confuse an intense attraction for some sort if divine love. For teens, since feelings of attraction are still new and since pop-culture sells sex and love as one package, it is very easy to get the two mixed up. Lust is clearly not love. Love is based on more than just physical attraction. Sure, attraction is a factor, but love goes deeper than that. Love is based on caring, friendship, commitment and trust. When you are in love it is as if you have your best most trusted friend at your side AND you feel physically attracted to them. It is the best of both worlds! Love is a shared feeling between two people who have a vested interest in one anothers happiness. Love is not about jealousy. It is not about conflict. It is not about testing. Love is a positive feeling. If it is tainted by mistrust, jealousy, insecurity or spitefulness it is not really love but merely a pale copy. Love is the total surrender of your heart to another person with the security of knowing they will treat it better than you will. Love should feel good. It should not feel bad. Love should make you want to be a better person, it should not lead you to do something self destructive. Love is not demanding of your spirit but lifts it and makes it glow. Love is a good thing. Anything less is lust, deep friendship or attraction. So the sappiness aside, the question remains, how can you tell you are in love? Lust is a product of physical attraction. It corresponds to sex and outer appearance. True love encompasses the whole of a person. Even when your partner gains weight, goes gray or becomes poor as a pauper, your love doesn't dry up. Love often deepens with time, rather than dissipates. Infatuation is a nonsensical and typically short-term emotional high that causes a person to obsess about someone else. Left unchecked, it can lead to the unhealthy -- and even criminal -- act of stalking. Emotional surges are great but they are just that -- peaks that aren't sustainable and are, at their worst, one-sided. True love is mutual and lasting. Both sides of the relationship should be equally love-struck for it to blossom. How do you know when you're in love? Sometimes the signs of love are unmistakable. •You think and talk about each other constantly. When you're apart, you're dissecting the last conversation, both in your head and to family and friends. •You're smitten. Work, friends, family and hobbies take a backseat to your newfound partner. •You're a communication addict, constantly awaiting his next call, text or e-mail. •You find no faults. Your mate seems perfect through the blurred goggles of love. All the habits that would annoy you in anyone else seem quirky in your lover. •You feel her pain. The idea of your love feeling pain makes your heart hurt. •Your conversations never cease. Talking to your partner is effortless because you have so much in common. And … now I’d like to know … more ideas about love? Please, I love to read the comments! Lorena