{"id":432,"date":"2007-10-11T13:15:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-11T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2007\/10\/love--as-defined-by-children.html"},"modified":"2007-10-11T13:15:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-11T13:15:00","slug":"love-as-defined-by-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/10\/love-as-defined-by-children.html","title":{"rendered":"Love– as Defined by Children"},"content":{"rendered":"
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does love mean?”
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think: <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


<\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span>“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”<\/p>\n

Rebecca- age 8 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


<\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span>
“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.”<\/p>\n

Billy – age 4 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.”<\/p>\n

Karl – age 5 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”<\/p>\n

Chrissy – age 6 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.”<\/p>\n

Terri – age 4 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.”<\/p>\n

Danny – age 7 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss”<\/p>\n

Emily – age 8 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” <\/p>\n

Bobby – age 7 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,” <\/p>\n

Nikka – age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet) <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.”<\/p>\n

Noelle – age 7 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.”<\/p>\n

Tommy – age 6 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.<\/p>\n

He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.”<\/p>\n

Cindy – age 8 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.” <\/p>\n

Clare – age 6 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.”<\/p>\n

Elaine-age 5 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.”<\/p>\n

Chris – age 7 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.”<\/p>\n

Mary Ann – age 4 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.”<\/p>\n

Lauren – age 4 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.” (what an image)<\/p>\n

Karen – age 7 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.”<\/p>\n

Mark – age 6 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


“You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.”<\/p>\n

Jessica – age 8 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


And the final one — Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.<\/p>\n

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.<\/p>\n

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, <\/p>\n

“Nothing, I just helped him cry” <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, please bless all my friends in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of Your peace, prosperity and power as he\/she seeks to have a closer relationship with You. Amen.
<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does love mean?”The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think: “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.So my grandfather does it for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nLove- as Defined by Children - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/10\/love-as-defined-by-children.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love- as Defined by Children - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does love mean?”The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think: “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.So my grandfather does it for…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/10\/love-as-defined-by-children.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-11T13:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Love- as Defined by Children - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/10\/love-as-defined-by-children.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Love- as Defined by Children - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does love mean?”The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}