Learning to Love Him

I was driving the other day with the song "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" playing softly in the background. Not a planned moment. Just a song filling the quiet space between errands and thoughts. And then the line came, “Savior, may I learn to love Thee,” and it caught in my chest.

Not sharply. Just enough to notice. The kind of feeling that lingers longer than the music itself.

I have been thinking about that word ever since.

Learn.

Because learning suggests process. It suggests patience. It suggests that loving the Savior is not something we either master or miss entirely. It is something we grow into over time.

If I am honest, there are days I still wonder if I am doing this right. Loving the Savior, I mean. Some days it feels natural and close, like the connection is steady and sure. Other days it feels distant, or tender in a way that makes me hesitate instead of lean in. And I find myself wondering how you learn to love someone you already believe in, but sometimes struggle to feel near.

Lately, I have been wondering if loving Him has less to do with maintaining a certain feeling and more to do with staying in the conversation. Coming back, even when prayer feels clumsy or unfinished. Opening the scriptures when I am tired and distracted. Letting Him see me exactly as I am, not cleaned up, not confident, not certain of the next step.

I think love grows there. At the table. In the honest places where we stop trying to perform and start telling the truth.

What I keep noticing is this. He does not rush me. He is not disappointed that I am still learning. He invites it. Gently. Patiently. As if He already knows that love takes time, especially when life has shaped us in ways that make trust feel fragile.

So maybe loving the Savior looks like this. Sitting across from Him the way I would a friend. Saying what is real. Admitting when I am unsure. Staying anyway.

And trusting that over time, in these small moments of choosing to remain close, love is quietly being learned.