When asked why they are getting married, many couples quickly say, “Because we’re in love!” But few human beings possess the kind of love which can survive the inevitable trials of the typical marriage. Love is merely what gets commitment going.
The first car that I owned was an old Plymouth Coupe. It seldom started easily in the winter – or the summer for that matter. I used to keep a can of gasoline in the car – I know that’s not a good idea, but it’s what I did. When I wanted to start the car, I would pull the hood release, go around and pour gasoline right into the carburetor. Usually it would get the engine running enough to engage the fuel pump that would then suck the gasoline out of the tank and up to the engine, and then it would fire.
Now in some ways it’s like that in the marriage relationship. In the beginning it’s love and infatuation that prime the engine of a relationship. But it’s the continuing supply of commitment that keeps it going.
I once read an interview in USA TODAY of a lady who had been married for 54 years. In describing their commitment she said that the low point of their marriage was trying to raise two quarreling kids while her husband, an oil company executive, traveled a lot. Then she said, “But we never thought the marriage wouldn’t go on.”
They had a commitment. Love may have ebbed and flowed throughout the years, but it was their unwavering commitment that kept their marriage going.
Related Scripture: I Peter 4:8
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Thursday, June 21, 2007
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1 comment:
Although I consider myself an atheïst and would never again take the bible for sound advice, I actually really loved this post.
All around me I see people breaking up. Sadly enough most of the time it really seems a very good solution to problems. In my opinion it really looks like a clear case of lack of selfreflection.
Being 'in love'is a transcient, chemically induced (in my opinion) feeling, just like pain (but the oposite :D). Feeling harmony and freedom is 'real love'. A 'place' where people can come to full development.
The love between two people, man or wife, or man and wife, is in my opinion the most 'easy'(though that would be quite a false adjective), but love is not restricted to a certain restraint on possible landscapes (I called it a place early on, which has a landscape).
Love, which insists that all parties agree to the fullest and experience freedom should, one of the most enriching emotions one can have.
Finding it, demands in my opinion that one must be commited to giving it.
peace from the Netherlands
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