Learning.To.Love.

In case you've been living under a rock...the little town of Greenville, North Carolina is well on its way to being underwater. It has been pouring all day, and shows no signs of stopping. I'm convinced the rain is having a good laugh as it watches those of us who think an umbrella & polka-dot rainboots will suffice...you practically need a paddle boat to get to class!

I figured out in highschool how strongly my emotions were effected by the weather. I'm normally energetic, and agreeable. But on these dark & dreary days, I feel like I have a bone to pick with the whole world! That got me thinking...how different men are from women. Walker could care less about the weather. Hot, cold, rain or shine, he remains unchanged. [Unless it's snowing...then he turns into an elated 5 year old. Which I find adorable.] Another way we are completely different: I have seen Walker cry a total of 4 times. He on the other hand, would be c r a z y  to even try and count how many times I've cried. The list goes on...we're just wired so differently!

I decided to ask myself a very selfish question. How can I vow to love someone so different from me...forever? Then I thought, isn't that exactly what God has done for us? He has promised to love us forever, and how much different are we from Him? Even though we are created in His image...He is a heavenly being, whose glory would literally blind us. We are lowly humans. He is perfect, spotless. We are filthy sinners. But oh, how He loves us.

Gary Thomas brings up an interesting point in his book Sacred Marriage...

[God lets us choose whom we're going to love. Because we get the choice and then find it difficult to carry out the love in practice, what grounds do we have to ever stop loving? God doesn't command us to get married, He offers it to us as an opportunity. Once we enter the marriage relationship--we cannot love God without loving our spouse as well.]

If I were getting married or not, I would obviously desire to love God. And since I have chosen Walker, I can now learn to love & honor God through loving & honoring Walker. Loving him no matter what differences arise. What a sweet lesson to learn! ...One last quote from Gary Thomas [I cant say enough good things about his book!]...


:::The beauty of Christianity is in learning to love, and few life situations test that so radically as does a marriage.:::