Those three little words-how important are they?

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I love you. Well not "you" exactly :lol: Some people place a great value on the words "I love you" and other people seem to be able to use them quite casually. What does it actually mean to you when you say "I love you" to another person? Do you only say those words to someone with whom you are already in a committed relationship? Do you tell your friends you love them, just as much as you tell a relationship partner? Now, here's the other side of the coin -- have you ever told someone "I love you" and you didn't truly mean it? Has someone ever told you they loved you... and later took it back or said they weren't sincere? It happened to me once. Someone that I cared about was well aware of my feelings. I hadn't said "I love you" because I wasn't sure it was the right step at that point in time. However, he knew how I was feeling and encouraged me... over and over... to "just say it." Finally, I told him I loved him and he said, "Say that again." I thought, "After ALL this time, I finally tell him and he didn't HEAR me?" :o He then told me that he just wanted to hear me say it again because of how it made him feel. Then he told me he loved me too. Jump ahead to a few days or week later and, in the midst of a conversation, it came up again about "saying I love you." He admitted to me then that he had said it because he wanted to know how it felt (he'd never told anyone before) and he also thought it would make me happy. It didn't. I was crushed. I take those three words to mean so much. When I say "I love you," it comes from my heart. I've never told someone I loved them when I really meant "boy, I sure like you a lot" or "you're such a great friend"... saying "I love you" is, in my case, restricted to romantic love and love of family -- but it's not something I use to convey friendship. How about you?