Like the song says, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love, not just for some, but for everyone.” There is too much violence and too little love for everyone these days. God offers us true Agape love – forgiving, unconditional, and eternal. Love starts in our thoughts and filters down into our emotions.
Scientists tell us that a neurotransmitter in our brain called dopamine is responsible for the flutters and warm, fuzzy feelings inside when we think about or spend time with the person that we love. Dopamine also triggers when we see a plate of our favorite food, our pet lazing around the house, listening to our favorite music, etc.
This chemical increases our excitement and builds up our enthusiasm. When we experience an interaction with the person or object of our love, our brain releases even more dopamine as well as another chemical called oxytocin – also called the “love hormone”.
Oxytocin influences our feelings with thoughts of trust, affection, and security. It inspires us to make sacrificial decisions to support our loved one and to compromise some or all our preferences to choose what is best for one another (Romans 12:10). Love also influences our vagus nerve.
My favorite physical therapists encourage patients to yawn widely like a cat, in order to trigger the vagus nerve. This important bodily function influences our digestion, heart rate, facial expressions, reflex actions, and the rate of our breathing. It also helps us to have a sympathetic interaction with our loved ones.
Love puts us in a good mood, breeds more love, and positively affects our behavior. We hate the clock when the time separates us from our loved one, and we relish the times we can spend together. True love thrills our soul at the sound of our love’s voice or footsteps. Memories of that love warms our heart even if our loved one is taken from us.
Prayer:
Father God, thank You that true love lowers our stress factor over events in our life and positively influences our mood. In our single years, and in an unloving relationship, the chemical cortisol increases our stress-related feelings; however, we thank You that true love reduces stress, increases our androgen hormones, and keeps us healthier in body, soul, and spirit.
Help us to realize that the love You give us through our loved ones helps us to develop more committed and patient interactions with each of them. You designed this love to improve our health, to influence a longer lifespan, and to decrease our illnesses. Conversely, strained relationships cause depression as they instigate feelings of unhappiness in life’s circumstance, which shortens our life. We want to honor You in all that we think, say, and do.
Thoughts for the Day:
In strong partnerships, jealousy often reminds us to pay more attention to our loved one’s needs and emotions. It spurs us to be more invested in our relationship and to prefer each other instead of our self, to stop taking one another for granted, and to spend more quality time together. According to scientific studies, true love will actually reduce our pain levels and give us a motivation to live a longer and more fulfilled life.
– Philippians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; 1 Peter 1:22;
