Welcome back to Unfiltered with Love. I'm your host, Carrie Love. Today I wanted to talk about something that's been on my mind and honestly something that concerns me a little. I came across the quote recently that really made me stop and think. The quote said, I'm afraid that we may be raising a generation of young people who will grow up afraid to love, afraid to give themselves completely to another person, because they've seen how much it hurts when love doesn't work out. And when I read that, I just paused because I think there's some truth in it. I think a lot of people want love, but at the same time they're afraid of it, of being hurt, vulnerable, and giving too much and not getting it back. So instead, we see a lot of people protecting themselves, keeping one foot out the door, holding back emotionally, staying in situations that feel safe but not necessarily fulfilling. And it makes sense because love can hurt. And I understand that fear. I've lived through seasons where love didn't turn out the way I thought it would, where I had to let go of something I believed in and rebuild parts of myself. And those experiences change you. They make you more aware, sometimes more cautious, but they also make you stronger if you let them. But here's what I've come to realize: there's a difference between being wise and being closed. Being wise means you've learned, you've grown, and you've developed boundaries. Being closed means you've stopped allowing love in at all. And I think sometimes those two things get confused. And then I also came across something else that really shifted how I think about this. It talked about how the goal isn't to avoid love or protect ourselves from it completely. The goal is to learn what healthy love actually looks like. Because healthy love doesn't ask you to lose yourself. It doesn't thrive on confusion and it doesn't leave you constantly questioning your worth. Healthy love is steady, respectful, honest, and it exists. For me, faith has played a big role in understanding that. Love will always involve some level of risk, but that doesn't mean we're meant to live in fear of it. Sometimes we're called to trust that even when things don't work out the way we hoped, they're still shaping us, still growing us, still leading us somewhere we're meant to be. And I think this is where the real answer starts to take shape. If we're concerned about what younger generations are learning about love, then we have to look at what we're modeling. Because people don't just learn about love from what we say. They learn from what we live, from the relationships we stay in, the boundaries we set, the way we treat ourselves, and the way we allow others to treat us. I think the answer isn't to teach people to avoid love, it's to show them what healthy love looks like. To show them that you can love deeply without losing yourself. You can have boundaries and still have connection. You can walk away from something that isn't right and still believe in love. And when we do experience healthy love, not hiding that, not downplaying it, but allowing it to be seen, because that's how people learn that love doesn't always have to hurt. And I think the question we're left with is this How do we teach the next generation how to love without teaching them to be afraid of it? How do we show them that love is worth the risk without pretending that it doesn't sometimes hurt? How do we model healthy love so that they don't grow up settling for half love or avoiding love altogether? Because I don't think the answer is to protect them from love. I think the answer is to teach them how to love in a way that's grounded, self-aware, and whole. And maybe that starts with us, with the way we love, the way we set boundaries, and the way we choose ourselves without closing our hearts. This is unfiltered with love. I'm Carrie Love, and this is just the beginning.