Why are those three of the most powerful words a person can say?  It doesn’t matter who says them or to whom they are being spoken, the power is there.  So just what power are we talking about?  

No one knows for sure precisely what is meant, but everyone loves to hear them. We get that warm fuzzy feeling inside when we hear those words. The recipient interprets those words as the giver offers them in an expression of personal choice.

The confusion in understanding the meaning is because the word ‘love’ has several abstract meanings, but the power belongs to the giver. If you question that statement, just test it for yourself on someone by telling him or her that you don’t love them!

Wikipedia offers this definition: “Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection^[1] and attachment.”

So if love is a number of emotions, which ones?  Isn’t love an emotion?

If love is related to a sense of strong affection and attachment, how strong? And for how long? 

Tons of literature has been written about love. Almost every author has churned out words to describe it, express it, relay it, respond to it and even create it!   So what is it and why is it so powerful?

When a man tells a woman he loves her, usually she melts.  Her thoughts go off into the abstract world of her own imaginations, desperately trying to discern his intentions.  She usually finds comfort in those words and he has the power at that moment.

When a woman tells a man she loves him, he may not exactly melt, but he certainly experiences something and relates the words to his own desires, she has the power.

When a parent tells the child  he/she is loved, the parent holds the power.

When the child tells the parent he/she loves them, the child holds the power.

When a person tells their pet they love it, the person has the power.

So what is this power?  Where does it come from?   Why do we succumb to those words?

I don’t have the answer either.  I simply know that I appreciate them as much as you do!