An elderly couple sitting in a restaurant, eating a delicious meal, hears the conversation of another couple on the table beside them. The young man stretched out his hand and held his fiancé’s hand and said: “Honey, I love you”
Then the elderly woman said to her husband: “Honey, when last have you said that you love me?
The husband answered harshly: “I already said it once, if I change my mind, I'll let you know.

It’s only a story, but there is an important point here. Love needs to be expressed verbally and not only through attitudes. Husbands and wives need to hear it. The same way, parents and children need to hear it. And also the Lord. Peter was resisting in expressing verbally his love to Jesus. For this reason he did not make himself available. Jesus tried three times to make him say “I love you” but he did not understand Jesus’ purpose. ( John 21:15 ).
It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t ask “Peter, have you been serving me?”

Love should precede service.
This principle was expressed in a touching way in the role of “Fiddler on the Roof”. In a wonderful scene where Tevye tries to make his wife, Golda admits that she loves him. Each time he asks: “Do you love me?” she responded by remembering how she was a zealous wife, sewing his socks, getting milk from the cows, giving him children. But Tevye, who was waiting to hear her express her love verbally, insists: “But do you love me?” Timidly she answered “I think so”. And Tevye adds: “I think I love you too.” Concluding, he says: “It doesn’t’ change anything but after twenty five years of marriage it’s good to know.”

Leroy Patterson.