Love Requires...

 Hello Friends!

Thank you for taking time out of your day to join me here.  Today's topic....LOVE.
Are you surprised? This being the month of February, I suppose you have been/will be hearing a lot about love.
This year, for the first time ever, we left our kids with a friend and got out of town.




  We went on a marriage retreat in Georgia.  The venue was gorgeous! The food was good! The fellowship was great! and the teaching was spot on!

We heard teaching about godly leadership, godly submission, marriage and money matters, and marriage and passion.  What I especially enjoyed about our speakers, is that we saw them model how love and friendship should look in the golden years.  It was a beautiful sight.  They not only loved each other; but they obviously and very genuinely delighted in each other.
As I considered what about love (and marriage) I wanted to share, these thoughts came to mind:

Love requires a choice. 

 I think it would be more accurate to say that love requires many choices; but I wand to debunk the idea that people arbitrarily fall in love.  We chose to love...or to be infatuated with another person.

First you choose to spend time with them.  Then you choose to connect yourself, or associate yourself with them. Maybe you choose to see the beautiful things about them. Sometimes you may choose to ignore the not so beautiful things about them.  Who you "fall in love" with is a choice.  It's not like the old commercial used to advertise. "I have fallen and I can't get up". Anyone remember that commercial?
In our young and searching years, it would behoove us to choose wisely and involve much prayer and counsel.
The second thought that comes to mind is that...

Love Requires humility.

Man, or woman, you will often have to chose to put your own pride aside...if you want a great marriage.  Both the husband and the wife has strengths and weaknesses.  Often, the strength of one will compensate for the weakness of the other. 

If we are humble enough see and admit that our weakness exists.  Then it will require humility to realize that your spouse is strong in that area.  If we want to be better together, we will humble ourselves enough to point out that strength in them and admit that we need help with said area.  This also requires trust.   Sometimes we keep quiet because we aren't sure that we can trust someone else with knowing too much about us.  We set up walls and borders that don't allow us to grow into who we could be...

Another topic for another day!

One of the things we were gifted on the retreat is a series written by Dr. Tony Evans - the "Kingdom Agenda" series. It has three parts: One booklet "for Men Only,  One booklet "for Women Only,  and One booklet for Couples to read together.

One thought that spoke to be in the Women only book is about us as women "putting up the yield sign"  and allowing our husbands the right of way in all matters in our marriage.  This REQUIRES humility; but I realize that if no one acknowledges who has the right of way, then none of us would ever arrive at our proper destinations in one piece, or on time.  One partner committed to godly leadership (yielding to God's ways and views) and the other partner, the wife, yielding to the leadership of her husband (as God has commanded us to do in His word) will require each partner to humble themselves in the sight of God and man. Last of all for today...

Love Requires work.

People with jump through hoops for years in pursuit of money or a dream career; but give up in a year if their marriage requires them to leave their comfort zone for any reason.  We become lazy in pursuit of our spouses hearts.  We don't want to put in any extra effort  to go out of our way to do something that inconveniences us; but would make life easier or more pleasant for our spouse.

I am always challenged by what scripture says. Let the woman be in subjection to her own husband.  Let her boss ask her to work overtime...no problemo.  Let her husband ask her for a little extra time.  SAY WHAT!@#@!

And visa versa.  I challenge my husband, who is a great man, to be careful about bending over backwards for Suzie Q.  I do not have a jealous nature.  Honestly, I think my husband would like it if I was a little more zealous in that area; but even I don't like when he spends time with others that I don't feel like he would spend with us voluntarily.  It is easy to neglect the ones who  seam to require the least from us.  You may have a high maintenance job and a low maintenance family.  Making it a point to spend time working on and developing that low maintenance relationships will bring a great return in time. 

May this little post bless and challenge you in your love!

Until Next Time,