You never realize how much your family and friends mean to you until you are far away from them and you never realize how much your family and friends mean to you until you are with people that don't know you as well as they (family and friends at home) do.

I started a slow process on September 23^rd 2009 of realizing how God has blessed me incredibly with loving family and friends. Just thinking back to how many tears I cried while leaving, how many tears I have cried because my family isn't with me, and how many smiles and more tears I have when I get to talk to them every once in a while, has helped me realize that my Heavenly Father has poured out His love on me through the example that I have at home with my family and dear friends. I have never realized how close and precious my family and close friends are to me. And the only thing that I can do after I have realized this amazing blessing is realize another thing. I am nowhere near thankful enough for them. I am nowhere near understanding what an amazing blessing it actually is to have love from a family, and friends. I am nowhere near understanding the love my Heavenly Father has shown me through giving me the family I have, and the friends that I have.

Not understanding this leads to something even deeper. Because I am nowhere near understanding the love that I have been shown through my family and friends, I am nowhere near understanding the perfect love that my Heavenly Father has for me. If I can not grasp the fact that I am loved because I have been blessed with a loving family and friends, then how can I even think about understanding perfect love that comes from my Heavenly Father?

If you want to go further, then I could talk about my lack in understanding 1 Corinthians 13, but I won't go there. My point is that I don't think I will ever be able to fully understand the word love in it's perfection. I don't think any of us will ever understand the word love in it's perfection. I guess the only thing we can do is come to an understanding that we will not understand, and then be truly thankful to our perfect Father for the grace He has towards us. He knows we will never understand while we are here on this earth, and yet He still chooses to love us with His perfect love, because He is love.