Everything Comes Down to Love
After four decades of parenting and teaching, I have come to one conclusion.
“One last point: If your relationship with your family is especially difficult, working to improve it might sometimes feel like a lost cause. It’s easy to throw up your hands. Almost every day, we hear from people all over the world who feel stuck in family problems that seem like they have no solution. Maybe you have said, ‘I just want to turn my back on those people and get on with my life.’ Giving up is almost always a mistake, because ‘those people’ are, in a mystical way, you. Your spouse is a completion of you as a person. Your kids provide a rare glimpse into your own past. Your parents are a vision of your future. Your siblings are a representation of how others see you. Giving that up means losing insight into yourself, which is a lost opportunity to gain self-knowledge and make progress as a person. Never give up on the relationships that you did not choose, if at all possible. But what about the relationships that you have chosen? These are your friendships, and that’s the next part of our lives to build.”
― Arthur C. Brooks, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier1
Everything Comes Down to Love
As I gather my thoughts here in the Miami Airport before an almost ten-hour flight, I reflect on the wisdom of Arthur C. Brooks, author of Build the Life You Want.
I first heard that sentence in 2023.
I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
After four decades of parenting and five decades of teaching students in various forms, I have concluded:
Everything Comes Down to Love.
Starting with Love
I want to start the new year thinking about this sentence, “Everything comes down to love.”
I’ve committed to giving 2025 to studying, teaching, podcasting, etc., on the critical topic of mothering, so what better place to start than the virtue of LOVE?
This week’s podcast comes from the archives of September 2023.
A Little Q&A
After listening, I’d love to know:
What are your thoughts about “everything comes down to love?”
As you read through Arthur C. Brooks quote (above), what are your thoughts?
What does love look like to you?
Is there some resource that has helped shape you to love God, self, and others well?
I wrote a little book a few years ago that talks a lot about love if you’d like to go a little deeper.
https://arthurbrooks.com/