“If you don’t know love, someone will come along and teach you how to hate yourself, then you’ll confuse the two!”

No one can tell you all that love is, but I can tell you what it isn’t. One thing that I’ve found to be true is that REAL LOVE doesn’t hurt – at all. And when you are hurting, it’s not from a place of love! Don’t confuse the two.

So many people have entered into a relationship where neither party knew real love. Then their insecurities surfaced and they projected them onto one another. Next they selfishly tried to make the other person fill voids in their life. Miserably, they failed. It resulted in fights and nights filled with tears. Then to top it off, they called it love!

News flash: that’s not love, that’s self-hate.

Evaluate your relationship today. If your partner isn’t adding to you then they are taking away from you. It is very possible to have a relationship without any love in it. So please don’t label a toxic relationship as love. It’s part of the reason why love has a bad name today.

Before you can love anyone, you must first love yourself. A part of loving yourself is being strong enough to let someone go so that the both of you can grow. Then take time to learn what real love is and what a healthy relationship is. Then, and only then, are you ready to enter into a relationship.

Love speaks languages of it’s own and pain isn’t one of them.

~ Tony A. Gaskins Jr.