Blog 1109 – 09.09.2018
Lesson Two, The Greatest Love Of All
Yesterday, I shared one of the two most important lessons that I have learned about life – that as the children’s song and round Row, Row, Row Your Boat says so sweetly and succinctly that “life is but a dream” and I added that we are solely responsible for our own happiness and making our own dream or dreams come true. Today I would like to share a second lesson that I have learned well enough I think to teach about what I have come to believe is The Greatest Love Of All.
It is not, Charlie Brown, for that little red head girl, or blonde, or brunette. Nor is for you ladies that tall dark and handsome guy, nor short, light, and rugged. The greatest love of all despite all the religious professions is not to love God with all your heart soul and mind nor to love your neighbor. But it is to love yourself. All other loves are really quite impossible till we first get this one right. We are according to how I read the Jesus quote, “To love God with all our heart soul mind and strength and our neighbor EVEN AS WE LOVE OURSELVES.” And I realize most people, and I for most of my life did not read it with the emphasis on the last five words. It matters what part of the sentence we emphasize, the meaning we get out of a sentence. A comical misunderstanding comes to mind. “What’s that in the road A HEAD?” Does that emphasis not conjure up the image of a severed head laying on the pavement ahead?
Whitney Houston’s hit song from early in her musical career, The Greatest Love Of All, has some wonderful lyrics to this point and I quote them:
The Greatest Love Of All
I believe the children are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be
Everybody searching for a hero
People need someone to look up to
I never found anyone who fulfill my needs
A lonely place to be
And so I learned to depend on me
I decided long ago
Never to walk in anyone’s shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I’ll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can’t take away my dignity
Because the greatest
Love of all is happening to me
I found the greatest
Love of all inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all
I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be
I decided long ago
Never to walk in anyone’s shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I’ll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can’t take away my dignity
Because the greatest
Love of all is happening to me
I found the greatest
Love of all inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all
And if, by chance, that special place
That you’ve been dreaming of
Leads you to a lonely place
Find your strength in love
Songwriters: Linda Creed / Michael Masser
Greatest Love of All lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OBCchFH6AVk55iiiOP5ZRJErTMINrJZn
The Greatest Love Of All
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
