The ancient Greeks had four unique words, which when the Bible was translated into English all became LOVE. They are agape (God's love), storge (family love), philia (love between friends), and eros (sexual love, which is not in the Bible). Our language is not that destitute that we can't speak more specifically when we want to talk about love.

Do a little brainstorming. What other words come to mind when you think "love"? Which do you substitute?

Here's my list;
decision
respect
devoted
loyal
bless
honour
romance
compassion
favour
affections
fondness
infatuation
delight, enjoy
like, admire
beloved
worship

That may be enough for now. I'm sure you can come up with more, depending on the meaning you apply to love.

I'll take just 10 of those words and show how they refine and explain love in specific situations. Feel free to add them to your daily vocabulary year round.

1. Decision - a thesaurus defines love 6 ways as a noun and only 3 ways as a verb. I prefer to think of love as a verb. We have to make a decision to do it. Don't wait for love to land on you like a friendly bird.

2. Respect - choose to respect someone, and they will begin to favour you, and a mutual love relationship will grow out of that.

3. Devoted - once married, remain devoted to your spouse. It's easy at the beginning to be devoted to your children, but love involves repeated decisions to remain devoted no matter what they do later on.

4. Loyal - in families as well as friendships, it is important to show loyalty, to protect that other one's reputation, You do that by not telling of his or her mistakes and foilibles as jokes on coffee row. Rather you drop good words of appreciation and describe your beloved in kind and gentle terms. You keep the secrets of the one you are loyal to, that is loving them.

5. Bless - do good, kind things for them. Here's the verb in love again; say words of encouragement and gratitude and hope too.

6. Compassion - this is not feeling-sorry-for-you pity, but a caring identification with the person who has a need, whether for a family member, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger orphaned by a tsunami wave. But not just identification. Compassion only occurs when you get up and do something for the person you love. Up until then, you only have pity.

7. Favour, like and admire - if these were on a colour wheel, they would be shades of the same colour. We all like to win the favour and admiration of others. Our kids get ahead in school better, if their teacher and the classmates favour or like them. But have you ever considered that you might improve someone's lot by showing them favour, and speaking admiringly to them? Another way of describing blessing, actually. Even if you give away your love like this to a child, or a stranger that you'll never see again, give freely!

8. Affections and fondness - technically these look like nouns, but just as love unexpressed is useless, so you must exert yourself to show affection and fondness.

9. Delight - one of the best proofs of you love someone, is to revel in their presence and all they say and do. Parents who delight in their kids find this comes naturally. It works in all other relationships too. Lovers mutually enjoy one another.

10. Worship - we are to totally love God. We choose to respect Him by obeying His Word. This includes daily devotional times in His presence. and loyalty in what we say about Him. We bless God when we show favour and kindnesses to others, What He likes best of all is when we delight in Him and praise Him enthusiastically.

This is mutual, for we read in Zephaniah 3:10, "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." (NIV)

Deuteronomy 33:27 tells us, "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." (NIV)

Take this image with you; God carries you and me on His strong, everlasting arm. He delights in us, and sings over us with glad songs!

That liberates me to love Him back, and to love others as proof.