The POWER of Love

Huey Lewis sang about it. So did Celine Dion. But the power of love is not about the emotional pull we feel when we love another person. It actually carries intense spiritual and biological power that gives us strength beyond our normal capacity. 

In today's episode, we tackle the deeper meaning of "love" and how it can literally transform your genes when you are in a loving relationship with another person. 

We'll also show you what this looks like in a marriage back in Bible days - how love gave strength to do things beyond normal physical strength. 

Dive in! 

Transcript

So today we're talking about the power of love, and I know that sounds cliche-ish, but we're actually gonna dissect it. We're gonna dissect why love is so powerful, and it's not just all the spiritual reasons. We're actually gonna talk spiritual and we're gonna talk scientific. why love is so powerful.

That's right. Isn't that cool? It is really cool. , you know Huey Lewis and Celine Dion? I know, that's what I was gonna say. We, we should have, that would've been a good song for today, but we have an even better one. But yes, Celine Dion, the Power of Love would've been really good for today. Well, but, but Huey Lewis also on Back to the Future, don't mean need money, don't need fame.

Don't need no credit card to ride this. , all he needs is the power of love. . Yeah. Try going on a train or a bus or a plane and say, Hey, I don't have any money, but I got, it's just not really work. It might not work, but we are gonna talk about, uh, love and its power and why spiritually and scientifically, it is uber powerful and how important it is for you and your spouse to keep that power going hot and heavy.

Now, before we do, we wanna jump into a nice little song, A little love. Blessings from Flor, uh, Florida, Georgia line. Yes. One of our all times favorites. So let's, oh, let's share it with the peeps. And you know, I have to give shout out to my good buddy, Brent Whitaker, him and his bride Lee in Bluffton, South Carolina.

He sent me this song like five or six years ago and he said, oh, is he the first one? Yeah. Oh, I remember that. I remember someone sent it to you and we were listening to it all the time because Brent knows all my time. Thanks guys. I like country music and Tori likes country music, so he's like, you guys will.

So I'm gonna play this and I'm gonna play a little bit more than normal, just because the fir the first, uh, verse, it goes pretty fast, but just all the words are so awesome. All right. I'm not gonna play the, the very beginning, but let's, let's pick it up. I'm gonna play the whole first line first. I met you girl.

You always saw blue skies. Pass the rain clouds in my eyes. Just use again, you. From the floor up to the rafter, to that happy ever after. After my whole life, who knows where I be. I just couldn't be just, I can't count on hand. Put honey lape on your finger. Say I'm a lucky man. God made lovers at strangers.

Everybody.

So good. I love it. . That is such a powerful song. Like, tell me that first, that first line just, just doesn't say, all right. Yeah. I, I wanna be married. Mm-hmm. , I wanna live the simple. , I got my bride, or I got my husband, whichever one. And here I am. I, I got a lot to be thankful for. Yeah. It's not hard for me to count my blessings.

Nope. So good. I love it. So I wanna talk about the power of love, um, because it is true that we know that love is powerful. And one of the most powerful reasons why, obviously if you're a Bible reader mm-hmm. , God is love. Right? Right. So, and God is the ultimate, all powerful. and he is love. And when we have God in the mix, that's why Tory, and I've always said, a healthy marriage is not just between two people.

It's between three people, husband, wife, God. And then you bring God into the mix. Yeah. And the beauty of that is that when you couple love with purpose, it brings in Uber power. Yeah. And, and so we're gonna dive into the spiritual, but I wanna wait. I want to give Tori an opportunity. She's been, she, she reads all sorts of crazy.

but she, she really geeks out on some of the sciences that she does. Yeah. I, I love it when health nuts start talking about relationships and love like to be, that's like, yeah, that's my sweet spot. Yeah. Cause I love to learn about nutrition and all the ways to keep our bodies healthy. But then I was, I came across this doctor, Dr.

Mark Hyman, and he was talking about the power of love in for your health. Wow. It was really cool. And he, and it got me going on this, he, it's called, Sociogenomics. Huh? Have you heard of that? Socio sociogenomics? I have no idea what that is. It's a neuroscience term. Oh. And it ex, what it does is it examines how relationships affect your genes.

That's crazy to me. It's a whole study of how relationships affect your genes. Wow. Physically affect your genes. Yes. That's crazy. And what they have. is that when you're in a loving, connected relationship, your gene expression changes. Wow. And it works much better. No way. Yeah. It that is so crazy. I remember it like heals your body.

It's healing to your body, literally healing to your body. Um, and I remember, um, when we were reading a lot from, um, What's the neuroscientist? Caroline Lee. Caroline Lee. Years ago she talked a lot about just how our, our, the way that we heal and our cells are regenerated when we are in a loving relationship and when we are under the influence of love.

Everything works. beautifully. She's the one that said, everything that you do in life is born out of love or fear, right? Mm-hmm. . So choose love. Yeah. She lose your body. Said, she said, it's healing to your body and fear it brings disorder uhhuh to your body, whereas love brings order. Yeah. And um, so I just thought it was so interesting this, this guy Dr.

Um, Hyman was talking about it and um, you know, he said, you know, you can literally see that when, when you're in a bad relationship, it causes inflammation in your genes. That's just crazy. , they can literally see the inflammation. I'm in a bad relationship now. My hands are swollen. , . I can't get my ring off.

Oh my goodness. Yeah. So he was just talking about, um, the gene expressions and. . So I was, as I'm listening to the, to this and I'm starting to like research it and look into it further, um, I just started thinking about the verses in the Bible that talk about, you know, um, healing to your bones Yeah. And healing to your body and how, and one that came across right away was Proverbs three, my son.

Do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your. For they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity. Okay, so something can prolong your years, which means bring length to your To your life. Yes. Heal your physical body. But he says you have to keep the command. Yes. My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my command in your heart for they will prolong your life.

Okay. Okay, so what's the command? Okay. Then cross reference that with John 15. 12. Okay. Where Jesus says, this is my command. that you would love others as I have loved you. , . I mean, hey, you wanna live a longer life, more healthy life, love people. Yes. Be in relationship. It. I mean, I just think that is incredible.

That keep my commandment, here's my commandment. Yeah. Love others. If as I've, I have loved you and you will have a prolonged life. That's crazy. So if I die early, so finally neuroscience is catching up with the Bible and saying, yeah, that's actually true. That when you operate out of love, you're at your, your peak performance, you're at your peak health.

Yeah. So if I die early, it's not because I don't love you. It, I think it's because you don't love me. Maybe , maybe you're just not receiving it. Maybe I'm just not receiving. That's like power, like seriously, like just stop and think about that for a second. The Bible has told. Do you want to live a prolonged life?

Obviously, I'm not saying everybody who loves people is gonna live forever. I'm not saying that, but the, the, your body can physically experience health by honoring God's commandments and what's his number one commandment? Love God, love others. Right. Be in relationship. Yeah. And it's so interesting too cuz one of the things he was talking about, how he was talking about the power of cuddling, uh, and how they're now seeing in neuroscience how it is actually a very powerful way of healing.

Mm-hmm. Um, when you cuddle and you have that connection with a loved one, um, that they're actually seeing like incredible results. But it just brought me back to when I was in high school, I used to do. Kids church with Sue Smith. Sue Smith. Do you remember Sue Smith? Sue? She was Sue Smith, one of my favorite human beings.

She was amazing. The sweetest thing. Sue Smith was so jovial and she was single and she was older, but she was the first lady that I would come in and help out in Sunday school there. This is before Tori and I were ever a thing. Mm-hmm. . And she would look at me and she'd look at Tori and she'd look at me and she'd look at Tori and she's one of the first people that re.

I think there might be something here. . Yep. She did too. Sheed up on it. God rest her soul. Yep. She passed away. But she was, she was just an amazing woman and she loved kids. Such a heart for kids, and she was a cuddler at the local hospital. . Yes. And on the weekends, that's how she spent her weekends cuddling.

Um, preemies. Yeah. In the nicu she would just go in there and hold them and rock in a rocking chair. Yeah. For hours and hours and hours. And so as I was listening to this, I'm like, oh my goodness. I mean, this thing has, this has been around for years. Obviously they knew years. You know, this was 20 year plus years ago.

Yeah. That Sue was doing that. And so I was even researching like, what is this whole thing behind cuddling? Why do so many hospitals have cuddlers for babies who are healing? And, and, and you know, you know, the research is, is clear, like it's healing to the body. When you have, when, when you have somebody cuddling a, a baby, an infant that is, is trying to recover, it brings restoration to their cells.

It's just incredible what it does. Yeah. And um, they call it kangaroo care. Kangaroo. Oh, cuz the kangaroos got the pouch. Yep. Okay. Because you're keeping that child close. Nice. And um, so there was a study done, I was reading in the In Times magazine. There was an article about, um, that they kind of followed up on these hospitals and these patients that did kangaroo care.

Okay. And so there were, there are a number of hospitals that did it and a number of hospitals that didn't. And so they followed those. . Okay. And the babies who had kangaroo care clearly outperformed those who did not have kangaroo care. Oh, wow. This is 10, 20 years later. That's crazy. Yep. So it, it really, it like the, they were talking about just all the, the hormones that were released, those healthy hormones that are, that were re released through it.

Um, their sleep patterns for life were much better than those Oh, that didn't have it. Their stress management was clearly, . Wow. Yep. It, it really is incredible. It's so tour. We need to go cuddle . Let's go. Cuddle. Might be time to, to incorporate a little more cuddle into our, yeah. Into our routine, into our healthy, um, marriage habits.

I mean, we do cuddle, but you know, maybe, maybe even more after reading all this. Yeah. What we need to do is do a podcast where you're sitting on my lap all the time, , and then my thigh will fall asleep, , and then everybody will hear a big crash. Yeah. Um, no, I love that. Uh, and. Now what I was thinking about this when we were talking about the power of love and Tori was sharing some of that stuff with me, there was a, there was a story in the Bible that I was reminded of in Genesis 29, and I want to just tease this out for a second because it shows you the power of love.

It shows you what can happen inside of a person when you couple love into the mix and you take love and, and blend it with purpose. Mm-hmm. , you know, when you take love and purpose, you know, Sometimes your love feels like it's growing cold. Like yeah. You, you're, you, you and your spouse are kind of just in two different lanes doing your thing.

Yeah, yeah. You live together. Yeah. You go on, you know, dates when you can and Yeah. And all this kind of stuff, but there's really not like that, that real deep, deep connection that maybe you wanted to have at one point. I think oftentimes that means that you have missed out on maybe your purpose together as a couple, because there is a purpose for you both together to serve together.

And so, um, in Genesis 29, what we all know about Abraham is Isaac and then Jacob. And Jacob was the father of the 12 and the 12 or the 12 tribes of Israel. But Jacob, this is back when he was a single guy, and Isaac, his dad tells him, Hey, I need you to go. To the land of Haran, H a r a n to get a wife. Hmm.

Right. I don't want you to go to the Canaanites. I need you to stay, you know, in a closely associated nationality. Here. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go get a, get a wife and they didn't have to hire a marriage broker or anything. Marriage broker. That's a thing. I never knew that. Let me pause for one second.

I was in India with some friends of mine and, uh, business partners, and we were sitting in their house and we had just eaten. And one of the ladies, uh, who had made the food came up and she started asking me questions. And she said, how did you meet your wife? So I explained to 'em the story. Well, in straight American fashion.

I just returned the favor. I said, well, how did you meet your husband? She goes, A marriage er, . I was like, wow. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What? and then they explained to me how many people still to this, this day? Yes. In India will hire a marriage broker. Yeah. Where they find someone. Is this the, the woman that said she, that she said that he looked like a bear or something.

Oh no, that was a different one. . I remember you telling me that story. She's like, I just looked and he kind of looked like a bear. She was talking about the, so this, this particular couple that Tory's talking about, um, the woman's father got a marriage broker. The marriage broker found a. . Mm-hmm. . And she did not see this guy until he was walking down the aisle.

And she said all she thought of was that he looked like a bear. That's so funny. He looked like a bear . That is his terrible. But now, now we heard the secondhand, um, but that couple stayed together for over 50 years of marriage and they were wildly in love. Wow. So it just goes to show you, no matter, you don't have to worry about personality differences.

Yeah. Irreconcilable differences. None of that stuff matters if you wrap God into the mix and these people were Christians. He can do anything. You can even really is a choice. You can even fall in love with the bear. Wow. . So, but anyway, that, just a little side note there, but here, Jacob, he had to go find a wife and so now he, he's on purpose.

So he leaves where he is and he's going to find a wife and he shows up at this well, and he says, and and, and he sees these shepherds coming in and he says, Hey, where are you guys from? And they say, Hey, we're from Haran. And instantly he's like, okay, now this is. This is, these are the people that I need to discover.

Is there a girl my age, you know, or maybe I can marry. And then they said, uh, and he asked, he said, so is is leban? Is Leban related to you. And Leban was related to his, was was an uncle of his and they said yes. And his daughter Rachel is coming right now with the sheep. And so, so here Jacob is, he's standing by this well, and now they hadn't rolled the wa the rock away from the mouth of the well.

And they would typically, back in those days, you know, a well was just a hole in the ground and they would put a rock over it so nobody would fall into. And it would take three to four guys to move these rocks. They didn't want to make it light enough to where just one person could move it. Hmm. So these rocks were massive.

And so Jacob is standing by this. The rock is over the hole of the well. And it says this, um, in verse 10 of Genesis 29 says, when Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of his uncle Leban and Leban sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle sheep. Now, typically we read a verse like that and we just think, okay, that's cool.

So he just watered some sheep. No, no, no, you don't underst. First Jacob was an indoor guy. Mm-hmm. , remember it was Jacob and Esau. They were the brothers that were together and they were the, the, the twins. He was the clean shaven, he was the clean shaven. Uh, Esau was the, was the outdoors dude who was hairy and strong, right.

Know and roughneck. Jacob was an indoor pencil pusher, , you know, he was probably an accountant or something, but like Jacob didn't like outdoorsy stuff. So that's first and second. This rock was massive, right? Big enough. And I got this from commentaries. It was big enough to where three people had to move it, but when he saw her and that, and there was instant, like love coupled with purpose mm-hmm.

because he was on purpose. Yeah. It was like he knew, you know, h h Abraham and Isaac had passed down. The covenant promise of God goes with you, Jacob, and from you will issue the star. You know, you'll have as many kids as a. In the heavens, you know, in the sand on the seashore. So it was that covenant promise of God.

So there's that purpose. Mm-hmm. . Now it's coupled with, oh snap. That's the girl that could be my girl. All of a sudden, what was once too heavy for him to move now was lightened to the point where he can do that is the power of love. That's love. Yeah. That's the power of love. Wow. Now, of course, love can't fix everything because the very next verse in verse 11, it said, then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep.

So no amount of love could change the fact that Rachel had bad breath. . Why else would he be crying? . All right, where are we going? Not good. . I wanted to see if you like that. Are you going somewhere like I'm, I'm, I'm going somewhere. Okay, good. Because I'm waiting. I'm going somewhere. But it really does say, then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.

Okay. And that's the whole. I mean, just imagine that you're, you're on your wedding day. Yeah. And I come over and kiss you and then start bawling my eyes out. Yeah. Why was he crying? Maybe she had bad breath toward, he said they don't explain this. No, they don't explain it, but they, they kind of do. Wow. Like, I, I, I didn't remember that part, so I was like, why is he crying?

Yeah. No, it, the very next verse says, he told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and her, and, and he's weeping because he, he's so, he's so excited to marry her. Yes, you're right. You. It had nothing to do with bad breath . But so it is true that he knew he was on purpose and now all of a sudden he realizes, okay, this girl, I can actually marry her.

Yeah. This is exactly the type of person that my dad said I needed to marry. And now here she is. So then they end up, um, going back to layman's house and then Leban is, a lot of us know this story. He was a deceiver. He had to teach Jacob some things and Jacob says to Labban, Hey, how. Can I work for your daughter?

Like I wanna marry your daughter. Yeah. And Leban goes, gimme seven years of hard labor. Mm. And so Jacob did it and in verse 20 it said, so Jacob served seven years to get Rachel. , but they seem like only a few days to him because of his love for her. Aw. Isn't that cool? Mm-hmm. . It's like, yeah. It's purpose.

So the time went fast. Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. Mm-hmm. , it's like, so Tori explained to us the power of love in terms of a scientific approach to this and how it, it literally alters your gene. Mm-hmm. , like it can give you motivation and power and strength when there's love wrapped with purpose.

inside of you for your spouse. Mm-hmm. . Okay. Um, and secondly, when you take love and you wrap purpose into it, which is something that you and your spouse can do together. Yeah. Whatever that is right now, it might be you just got young kids and all it is, is you two. Um, making sure that your kids don't die, which I mean, what greater purpose than that?

Nothing better. . So Tori and I, literally, I'd come home from work, we would do our little stuff with the family, and then it was time to get the kids ready for bed. And we, Tori and I were like a team. Yeah. You know? Mm-hmm. . There was a time when the boys were young enough where I would literally jump in the shower.

I would do my little shower, and then Tori would strip down the boys, boys, like, she'd hand me Trey, you know, I'd, I'd wash him up and then I would hand him out to Tory. And Tory would start drying him off while Jake gets in. Yeah. You know, . Yep, exactly. And then, can I say what Jake said one. It would be so funny.

I really don't think it's appropriate for this. But you don't think it's appropriate? Probably not, but let's just keep moving along . So, okay. I won't tell you what J Maybe one day you come here, Tori and I in a marriage seminar, and I'll tell you what Jake asked me one day when we were in the shower, but so I dry Jake off and I hand him to Tori and we got this, just this teamwork thing going right?

That was our purpose. And a lot of times at the end of the night, it's like we're laying down, we're exhaust. Fist bump. Mm-hmm. drift off to sleep. But there was just something real powerful about the fact that we were on the same page. Yeah. Like, we just did that together. We just conquered that. Yeah. Like we crushed it.

Mm-hmm. . And I think that, and we have vision for this family that we've, that we've got here and. I think that, you know, when you're talking about this, I think about my parents. I feel like they have such good vision for their family and that just gives them so much purpose together and I really think that's why their relationship is as strong as it is today because they've always had that purpose of before them.

For them. Yeah. It's, you know, family really keeping the family together and they planned so much. To get the family together and they, they just pour into that together. Yeah. And it really draws them close. You know, one of the first things that goes when your love grows cold is your sense of purpose. Mm.

And torque. You know, we've been at this long enough to where we've seen the couples that drift apart. are the ones who their sense of purpose is individual. Right. Rather than together. Mm-hmm. , you've got, I'm not saying you have to work together, but I am saying you have to have things, something together.

Yeah. Something together. Not to just do in terms of, of working or ministering or whatever you're gonna do, but also in playing mm-hmm. having fun. Mm-hmm. , like, do, do some hobbies together. Um, but there was one more angle of this that I wanted to bring out because when we look at Jacob, who was able to move a heavy stone mm-hmm.

heavier than what he could ever. had love not been in the picture right for Jacob doing seven years of hard labor, but it really didn't feel like anything to him because of his love for her. I think we need to monitor our spouses energy levels. Hmm. I think we need to look at our spouse and see are they like consistently exhausted?

If that's the case, there's a lot of things that play into it, but sometimes all they need is a little love. Hmm. You know, all they need is like what you would say, just how energizing love is and how Uhhuh Yeah, exactly what we were talking about at the beginning, that it actually repairs your jeans and it repairs your body.

Yeah. So it, it does have the, it does have that power over your energy. Yeah. It's like, uh, all they need is a little cuddle. Yeah. You know, ? Mm-hmm. . All they need is just a little, just reach your hand out, like mm-hmm. , grab the hand. Or maybe just for you to believe in them and to say something to express your appreciation and to say what, to say what you see in them and call out.

The man of God that you see that you haven't talked about in a long time. Like they might just need that word of encouragement. Yeah. And, and you need to be somebody that you're, you, your spouse will want to be around. Mm-hmm. , you know, if, if you guys always just have your own separate things. It's like, I'm gonna read a book, he's gonna read a book, and then we're just gonna do our thing or whatever.

But be somebody that your spouse wants to be around. Like, like, I don't know. Tori was always really good about this, making the house really nice and, and inviting and stuff like that. Obviously when our kids were, were younger, there was still toys, you know, everywhere on a consistent basis. But, you know, come home and there's some nice little country music playing or whatever, and it's, it's trying to keep it, it's relaxing, environment, inviting environment.

Yeah. And so I just think that that that love is so incredibly powerful that we have to 100% protect it. And the way to protect it is to make sure that we stay in our sense of purpose together. Yeah. Like on a team with our spouse. And then you're cultivating healthy marriage habits, you're communicating, you're doing all these things, but that sense of purpose when it leaves the love.

Yeah. If, if that love leaves, then you're gonna lack the power that God has created. Love to be. Yeah. In your own personal life, in your relationship. So good. So true. It's good. Do you have a recipe? I do. So I've had so many people asking about the sourdough, and it is such a, a process. It's, I absolutely love, love it.

Like now it's become kind of therapy for me. Oh, I love it too. The fa everybody loves it. It's, um, it, I love having something fresh and healthy on the. every single day of the week. Yeah. You know, I mean, pretty much I'm cooking it once a week and it two loaves and it lasts the entire week. Yeah. And it just feels good to know.

If Jake comes home and he's starving hungry, he can make a sourdough sandwich and there's something there for him and he loves him and everybody loves it. So, um, a lot of people have been asking me how to make it, and it's, it's very like, um, complicated. It's hard to, like, I can't just hand over a recipe because it's, it's a lot of steps.

So I am going to take this week to put it into a story form on, um, Instagram, Jason. So that you guys, if you're interested, a lot of people have reached out and they wanna know how to make it. Um, you can just follow the steps and I'll show you exactly how I do it. It is, and it's called, um, the, I think it's like easy sourdough.

It really is an easier recipe than most sourdoughs. It's a no need recipe, so you don't have to like, You don't need the dough, you just fold it a few times. Each e every step, which is like four different steps. So it, it's an easy one. Compar comparatively speaking. So I, I wanna share it with everybody that's been asking.

So that's gonna be the recipe for this week. Okay, I like that. And that sour dough is below your hair back. Good. Yeah, it really is. Um, so it's gonna be an on the highlight reels in my story. I just started the, the beginning process is that highlight reels. So, so they can go. Find the sourdough thing in the highlights.

Find, yeah, in the highlights. Find sourdough and it will explain step by step how to make it. Yeah. I don't know how that stuff works in social media. Yeah, I couldn't do, I couldn't do a reel on this one cuz reels are like a minute and a half and definitely not enough time to explain this process for real.

There you go. See guys, I got her to laugh. She didn't laugh at all. My other stuff, I got that one. She didn't laugh at all. My other stuff. You, you just, your facial expression was not, was not saying this is a joke. It was, it wasn't on point. I was going, when I did that verse about Jacob kissing Rachel and he cried.

That's the whole verse. And it just was funny to me. It's like when Tim Hawkins, you know, the famous Christian comedian says, His life verse is the one in, I forget which, Leviticus or something that says I have a painful disease in my loins. . I looked it up and it's legit. That's like a verse, A whole verse.

Yeah. So anyway, it's your life verse, right? Yeah. . No, my life verse is Genesis 2 25 and they were naked and unashamed. Oh, that's your new one, . Well, it's in the Bible. All right. Hey guys. Thanks for hanging out with us. Don't forget rate, review, subscribe, and hopefully you guys enjoyed last week's, uh, podcast with Stephen and April Stenson.

Yeah, that was fun. They're a ton of fun, Toya, and I love having couples on our podcast. So anyway, I don't know where I'm going with that, but we love the Stinsons and we love you, and we will see. We'll see you next week, next week.