Alphabet Thursday - Catching Up - B

There are so many wonderful "B" words, that it is difficult to Bring myself to choose...

But without a doubt one of my favorites is Beloved. So I thought it would be appropriate on such an occasion to share some words on love.

The Brownings of course are quite famous for their discourses on love. And I would be remiss if I did not include some lines from Will Shakespeare...

"My Bounty is as Boundless as the sea,
my love as deep;
the more I give to thee,
the more I have,
for Both are infinite."
(Romeo and Juliet, ActII, SceneII)

Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan poet, also wrote a lovely verse to her Beloved husband.

To My Dear and Loving Husband
by Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persever,
That when we live no more we may live ever.

And the Bible holds some very dear and precious words relating to matters of the heart.

Did you know that in addition to the sweet reference pictured above, the word "Beloved" appears more than 100 other times in the Bible?....

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.... In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son ... for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."
1John 4:7 & 10-12

We, each of us, whether we feel so or not; are Beloved.