Love Comes First: The Meaning of “Loving Our Guts” and A Request

The very first thing that you have to do when you begin a blog is choose a name. It is often the last thing that I do when writing a blog post or a book but in order to just get set up I had to select a name. I found it difficult to find a name when I wasn’t really sure what I would end up saying in my blog. I have many passions in my life and I wasn’t sure how many of them would make their way here or which one(s) would be my main focus. I wanted a name that could encompass those passions or at least many of them and help to explain in a tiny part what I hoped to do here. I knew that diet and it’s impact on our health would be a big part of what I wrote about, but I never thought it would or should be everything.

I also think that language and names can be powerful things and I wanted to have a name that inspired me to be the best that I could be. “Healing our guts” was a phrase I found myself using a lot already in my interactions with others, but that implies sickness and a focus on that. I did not want to be ill forever or give our illness that much focus. I know that while health is incredibly important, it is not everything.

While I thought about a name, I remembered a friend saying that in ancient Egypt it was believed that the seat of the emotions was the gut/stomach.*(see below) I also thought of the phrase “I hate your guts!” I wanted to turn it around and on it’s head. Mostly though, I thought about love. Love for my family and for my God motivates me and helps me to find my focus when I get off track. I want to focus my energy on love and expressing love for everyone I encounter. It is because of my love for my family that I pursue health for them no matter how difficult that pursuit is at times. When I forget the love everything becomes a drudgery and an obligation. When I remember love it is a joy to serve my family members in this way.

So my blogs name came from those musings. Loving comes first because I want to constantly remind myself and my readers that love comes first. Without it everything else is futile, a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal as the scriptures say. “It (love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Cor 13:7-8a). Putting the word Loving first in my blog name is an attempt to keep me always thinking of love first because it can help everything else fall into place when I do.

I got to thinking about what I originally intended for my blog and realized that I have not really been giving the love part as much attention as I should. I am going to be more intentional about sharing love on here. I am starting now with a series I’m calling Love Comes First. I am looking for submissions from others to add to this series. If you have a story or a thought about love to share, send it to me. I won’t promise to publish every submission that I receive. It needs to fit within the scope and tone of my blog and I reserve the right to reject any submission that I feel does not fit. I’m going to publish these posts on Mondays so that we can start the week off with love. If you have an idea send it to Pattyla(at)Lovingourguts(dot)com. I would love to hear from you!

*Before I got a bunch of comments about how the Ancient Egyptians considered the heart to be the seat of the emotions, I will say that first this was my memory from many years ago even if it is faulty or perhaps my friend got it wrong. Also, the ancient Egyptians considered the stomach to be an opening for the emotions into the heart so it isn’t exactly false.