How's your LOVE filter?

With Mercury in retrograde, writing a blog post may be unwise. Who knows what could blow up?

I feel weary of watching people's emotions blow up over simple Facebook posts. The hate debate is so disheartening.

I want to understand where people are coming from. I don't want to hear their cerebral diatribe. I don't want to read the platitudes that say "I'm on THIS side."

Whatever happened to "come together?" and "what the world needs now is love?"

I want to know your heart.

It's clear that there is very little trust in our government leaders and our political system.

It's clear that believing in God is ok as long as we say there are many gods and all paths to God are ok. If you believe in the God of the Bible, you will be attacked. It goes with the territory.

It's clear that if you don't speak out in support of gay marriage you are deemed a prejudiced bigot.

So when people have different opinions, they name call and blame each other. How old are we, 10?

I understand self-righteous anger. Some people feel lied to, duped, oppressed, outraged. They want to say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." I get it. But reading it hurts my heart.

I don't know if my vote matters. But I vote anyway. I believe in God. I can't make you believe or not believe. I'm not gay. I don't think who marries whom should have anything to do with the government or tax breaks. I don't own a gun. I admire the woman who talked a gunman down at a school instead of shooting him. But would I want to protect my loved ones from a violent sick person? Why yes, I would.

Maybe one of the reasons I believe in God is because I can't possibly know everything or sort out all these gray areas. What might be perceived as my "black-and-white" stance is actually acknowledging shades of gray and all the colors of the rainbow. I believe God is on my side and on yours, no matter what you believe.

I believe in Love. And I believe that God is Love. All the commandments can be summed up in two: Love God and Love one another.

Love with a capital "L."

Maybe we would benefit from more "I love you's" and fewer "I blame you's."

If you must pontificate and debate, how about you run it through the "love" filter first?

The hate is hurting my heart.