Faith and love are two parts of a perfect wholeness.

Positive faith empowers love. If we have faith in the beauty, power, and prospects of love, we're far more likely to succeed in love. Conversely, if we believe that love is foolish, dangerous, or impossible, all bets are off, absolutely.

Faith allows us to accept love. Without faith, we're closed to love; we lock it out, or kill it with doubt.

Faith empowers people. Surely you've heard someone say, "This person had faith in me, and that made some things possible." Or, "I wish you had faith in me. It's tough when you don't believe I can do it." Faith brings out the best in people; doubt brings out the worst. Which will it be, then? What will you bring out in your friends and associates?

As you know, love is the best in people. So that means, faith brings love out. Faith in "love unseen" allows great goodness to flow.

Faith makes it possible to extend ourselves in love -- to take the emotional risks necessary for success in love. We can't wait around for love to give us that faith. We have to just go for it: take a leap of faith! That's how life and love work.

(If a leap of faith seems out of reach, consider this: When we're feeling skeptical about life and love, we may be failing to take into account our own negative participation in life, and its effects. With enough honesty and humility, we might see, "Life didn't fail me as much as I failed life." Then we can say, "I have faith that life and love can be better -- better than I've made them so far."

Love justifies faith. Obviously, faith isn't all it takes to succeed in love: we also need to love abundantly. In a loveless life, it's meaningless to have faith (or positive expectations of any kind). If we want love in our lives, we need to give love, and be love. Then and only then is our faith justified, and our hope realistic.

Love inspires faith. It's natural to have faith in someone who loves you sincerely and is loyal to you. It's certainly more difficult -- even foolish -- to place your faith in someone who neglects or abuses you, deceives you or steals from you, etc. That means, if we love people well, they will develop faith in us.

Such is the connection between Love and Faith.