So many shootings, terrorist attacks, and fear fill the streets in which we live. All of this results in equally as much hatred for entire religious groups, races, and various groups of people. The problem is not really anything other than a lack of love. True love.

We grow up as children thinking love is some willy-nilly feeling you can have for someone else, but that is all it ever is, a feeling. When we grow up to be adults and make decisions for ourselves, we still have not left this mindset.

Love is far more than a feeling, it really is a choice. It is an "all-out" act of selflessness and choosing to put someone else before yourself. This is often confused with protecting people's feelings-true love puts future before feelings; again, real love is having the person's absolute BEST interest at heart, not the desires of their heart.

When I turn on the news or open up the Google, I am immediately bombarded with the latest attacks on the people of this world. Seeing stories of families mourning over their loved ones they should never have lost to such terrible acts is really enough to just ruin my day. So many people want revenge or justice, and a lot jump to the easy conclusion of just killing off the people who have wronged us, but I have been challenged with something much more difficult. I have been told to instead love these people.

I am not talking about the nonsense I mentioned earlier, I am talking about truly loving these people. To forgive them, not accept what they have done, but to realize that love can change their actions and it can change mine for sure. Our society is very much an "every-man-for-himself" kind of society. We are continuously being set into competition with each other, and from a young age we are told who we can associate with and those whom we cannot. It is a type of thinking that has gotten this country and this world, really, where we are today. Everyone seems to think that just going against each other is the way to solve the problems in this world.

I have learned in this time that I will never be able to change other people, and that never should be the end goal. Instead of focussing on how I can change my neighbor, I have challenged myself as well as others to focus on how we can change ourselves to better promote unity in our communities. The best way for this to happen is just to love and serve other people. When we take a moment out of our days to focus on others rather than ourselves, we grow a deeper respect for others, and we realize that we are all people of the same world. This is our world, this is our community. If we want a more loving society then we need to quit focussing on how to change it and start by changing ourselves.

I challenge you to love someone today. Serve them, and show them that they are cared about for who they are as a person, not just what they do or who they associate with. Love is the only way any real problems will get solved. We can have as many wars and conversations as we want but if our actions towards one another do not change, nothing will.

Go out and love somebody.