Love is an action verb and it requires an object. X loves Y. A mother loves her child. A man loves his wife. What does that mean to love? While the dictionary may tell you that it means that you have certain feelings for someone, experience tells you that it means acting on those feelings, day in and day out, in the way you treat the one you love. Substitute a different transitive verb in its place, throw, for instance: A boy throws the ball. That throwing, the action, defines the relationship between that boy and the ball. Without the throwing, you just have a ball and a boy sharing space.

Isn’t that true of love, as well? It’s nice that you did things in the past that were loving, or look forward to a happy Valentine’s day or some event in the future. But what are you doing NOW to love someone?