No phrase is filled with more anxiety, vulnerability, or longing as those three words. Yet, we are so in love with the idea of love that we don't think carefully about what it really means. In some languages, there are different words to denote familial, friendly, charitable, and romantic forms of love. But in English there is only one phrase, “I love you.” It is used with our relatives, friends, lovers, and sometimes even strangers. Love is complicated; but understanding it, or at least attempting to, is vital to our joy in this life.

Joseph Smith taught, “If men do not comprehend the character of God they do not comprehend themselves.” One of the simplest expressions of God's character is Jesus's declaration that “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Soft cover.