Be inspired to put love into action

"Love is a Verb,"

by Gary Chapman

"Love has to be more than something we feel," Gary Chapman writes. "It has to be something we do. We have to demonstrate it concretely."

And inspiring story after inspiring story, that's what "Love is a Verb" reminds.

Chapman of course became somewhat of a celebrity with the publishing of "The Five Love Languages," which sold 5 million copies.

Here he offers 40 "love stories" by a whole gamut of people who share their real-life experiences of love in action -- often not what you and I -- or they themselves -- expected.

Many are by writers who have a vital faith life, so they not only know how to tell a story but they get -- and pass along -- the spiritual they find in the episode they share about.

Chapman, a Baptist pastor in North Carolina, makes each story a teachable moment by adding a "love lesson" at the end of each piece.

Read a story a day

This is not a book to read from cover to cover.

You could, of course. The brief chapters -- the longest may be seven or eight pages and most are four or five -- make for quick, easy reading.

Better to savor the piece and its lesson a day at a time.

In fact, don't start at the beginning. When your -- um, "loveliness"??? -- needs a pick-me-up, crack open this 248-page Bethany House book and start reading a chapter wherever your fingers take you.

Let the stories soak in.

Then get to work.

Because love is a verb. -- bz