"A quality person will develop the capacity to love and be lovable. We all need to take advantage of every opportunity to love with tenderness and sincerity. This will determine our eternal joys and progress. Ponder the truth that it is more important to love than to be loved.
"Thomas P. Malone said: 'Almost every emotional problem can be summed up in one particular bit of behavior: it's a person walking around screaming, "...Love me." Love me, that's all. He goes through a million different manipulations to get somebody to love him.
"'On the other hand, healthy people are those who walk around looking for someone to love. And, if you see changes in the people who are screaming, "Love me, love me," it's when they realize that if they give up this screaming and go to the other business of loving another human, they can get the love they've been screaming for all their lives. It's hard to learn, but it's good when you learn it.' (Reader's Digest, Jan. 1974, p. 151.)"
- Marvin J. Ashton, "Be a Quality Person," address given 30 August 1992 during a single member fireside satellite broadcast; see Ensign, Feb. 1993, pp. 64-67
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We should "develop the capacity to love and be lovable." But how do we do that? It begins by taking advantage of opportunities to express love. I think we become lovable as we learn to share more love with others.
The rest of this excerpt is a quotation from a well-known psychotherapist who identified man's need to be loved, and the problems that occur when that is lacking. But truly healthy people spend their time finding ways to express and share love with others. And those who are struggling with life can be cured and helped by finding ways to serve and express affection and appreciation. It's a clear echo of the Savior's admonition, "As I have loved you... love one another." (John 13:34)
Wonderful to think that is more important to love than to be loved. It gives a great confort for those ones who feels loliness.
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