My emotions have been running rampant for the last few days, letting memories that I've blocked out slip through into my consciousness. My fingers trace the figurative flesh where their place in my life once was - now empty bullet holes in my skin. I wanted to forget, but my recent flashbacks and break downs remind me that I can't. I can't bring people back just the same as I can't forget the way they touched and impacted my life. ...

As a child, love was what strengthened me. It picked me up when I fell from the swing set at the local park, and what dried my tears after the first experience of losing a family pet that in my mind was invincible. Love is what encourages people in the darkest times, and gives us the promise of a brighter tomorrow. In 1 John 4:8 it is stated, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”, and from...