Don't Tell Me I Don't Know What Love Is

One thing I hate is when people say “You don’t know what love is”…in companions to their own personal experiences.

Every love is different.  
It’s not your place to tell someone that what they feel (or felt) isn’t real.

When I have children, and they come to tell me that “Mama, I love this girl” or “Mama, I love this boy”, I won’t discourage them.  I won’t say “You can’t love them.  You don’t know what real love is.” Or “That’s not real love, sweetheart, because it’s not the kind of love Daddy and I share.”
No.  
If they believe that they love someone, I will let them love that person.  As fully and as passionately as their little hearts know how to.  Because there’s something about that little love that made them label it “love”, and who am I to say otherwise?

Love is quite possibly the most amazing, intense, crazy feeling you will ever know.  It changes you.  It takes you on an adventure.  It makes you fly.  How does a little child know what that’s like?  Well they may not understand it completely, but something about how they feel for someone makes their natural instinct kick in and say “What you’re feeling right now is love.”
How beautiful is that?

The same goes for people telling teens – or even adults – that they don’t know what true love is.  Who are you to tell me what I felt or feel?  You don’t know my heart.  You don’t know everything I’ve experienced, what words were exchanged, what memories were made.
I’ve actually had someone (a couple years older than me) tell me that I don’t know what true love is because I didn’t have the type of relationship with my former boyfriend that they had with their ex-girlfriend.  Because THEY loved each other and wanted to get married and blah blah blah.
Funny thing is, though, he found out that she cheated on him with her coworker.  And they were together for four months total.
Now I’m gonna take my own medicine here and give them the benefit of the doubt that they were truly in love and whatnot.  But…actions speak louder than words, right?  And if what they had was true love, why did she cheat on him?
And he has no right to tell me that, compared to his love, I’ve never known true love in my own life.  If HE truly loved her, then maybe that’s a different story.
But still.  Everything I’ve felt with love is different than what he has.

I think people compare others to themselves much too often.  In all different situations in life.  Not just love.  And I think it’s unfair to the whole human race that we are so quick to judge based on our own experiences.
Nothing happens the same way twice.
Nothing happens to two individuals the same exact way.
Give grace.
Listen with humility.
And above all, encourage the positive energy, the positive love, and the beautiful things in life.