Reflections of a Single Man

Marriage. I am not married. Nor have I ever been married. But I can see and I can read. And Marriage isn't what it used to be. I remember seeing people that were 70+ years old. Married couples who had been together through trial, through heartbreak, through stress, through fear, through war, through everything that you can possibly have to deal with and you know what, they were still together. You... know why? Because they respected each other. They treated each other with kindness and compassion. They gave their lives to that person and never selfishly took anything from the other. This is what has brought me here. Seeing selfishness win over compassion. Seeing apathy win over love. I can say with all honesty, that if I were married this very day and this very hour, I would love, honor, and cherish my wife as if she were my own body. I would hold her in higher esteem than anyone else. I would devote myself to her. Care for her. Give her my all and all. I would die for her because that is what love is. Marriage is being with the one you love. Love is sacrificing for that person. Sacrifice cannot occur if all you do is take. If you stifle the one you love they will suffocate. If you take all they can give and still want more they will dry up. If you break them down until they are nothing more than a husk, then you have quite effectively turned a human being into nothing more than an animal. A frightened and weak animal that cannot stand on its own. You have taken its dignity. You have taken its drive. Its ability to produce anything on its own. You have taken all you can. Now you need to stop taking and for the first time in your life give something back. A wise man once told me that women are precious. The first gift ever given on this Earth was a woman. And I don't mean wrapped with ribbon. I mean Eve. God saw that Adam was lonely and he made Eve. Eve was the most precious thing Adam could have ever asked for. And he loved her. He gave her all he could and she gave to him in like manner. If only such things could be true today.

Ladies and Gentleman if you still believe that marriage and love are more than just being able to tell someone what to do, how to think, how to feel, how to behave, or how to live their life. If you believe that to give is more important than to take. If you believe that Love is a sacrifice that reaps more rewards than you could ever truly hope for, please share this. Send it to everyone. Let all the world know that Love is real. It is still here and we shall share it.

1 John 3:18
1 Corinthians 13
Romans 13:8
Ephesians 4:2
Ephesians 5:28, 29

God gave us the ability. Let us finally start to use it again.

 

by Joshua Sommers

used with permission