I wrote this back in February, after working all day on Valentine's Day. I was a cashier at Walmart at the time. I went home and couldn't stop thinking about my day, and was pretty restless. So, this is what came of it. I posted this as a note on Facebook, but thought I'd put it up here as well... So, here ya go:
A customer told me today, as he was buying roses for his wife, that they have been married for 53 years. I couldnt help but reply, "Wow, 53 years. Thats amazing!" After he walked away, I was left in my thoughts. WHY is it so amazing that a couple would still be together after so long, that a couple has ACTUALLY kept their promises, their vows to each other? I wondered why so many more marriages lasted back in the old days... How come when I look at old couples, I get jealous, because they seem SO in love still, but when I see younger (30s or younger) couples, it makes love look so unattractive, because they dont even seem to LIKE each other anymore... and the relationship is still "new".
I think back in the old days... they knew better than to waste any time, or to let love slip away. They knew and know what it means to cherish. To cherish your love and every moment of it. How special it is. They knew and know that it takes two, and that relationships take more and are ABOUT more than physical attraction, sex, and how good the other person makes you feel about yourself. There were no hand-outs back in those days, they knew how to WORK FOR and AT what they have and want. There were no songs by crazy overdone trainwreck celebrities trying to define love for you in one song and in the next telling you its "ok" to give yourself to a stranger for one night. They had this,
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Even though not every couple that has been married for 53+ years is a Christian and will quote scripture when they tell you how they love their spouse... I believe they would tell you something along those lines. The definition of love seems to have changed over the years in society. Its been distorted... and thats too bad.
These couples, the 53+ years ones, they know something in the deepest parts of who they are and where they come from, that we dont. We can learn a thing or two from them I think.
I wanna be like this nice old man that I met today. I wanna be able to tell my cashier, as I am still procrastinating and buying my Valentine a last minute gift 50 some years from now, "We've been married 53 years!".
Can you imagine? Wow.
Jesus help me to love for real, and help me to recieve real love.
A customer told me today, as he was buying roses for his wife, that they have been married for 53 years. I couldnt help but reply, "Wow, 53 years. Thats amazing!" After he walked away, I was left in my thoughts. WHY is it so amazing that a couple would still be together after so long, that a couple has ACTUALLY kept their promises, their vows to each other? I wondered why so many more marriages lasted back in the old days... How come when I look at old couples, I get jealous, because they seem SO in love still, but when I see younger (30s or younger) couples, it makes love look so unattractive, because they dont even seem to LIKE each other anymore... and the relationship is still "new".
I think back in the old days... they knew better than to waste any time, or to let love slip away. They knew and know what it means to cherish. To cherish your love and every moment of it. How special it is. They knew and know that it takes two, and that relationships take more and are ABOUT more than physical attraction, sex, and how good the other person makes you feel about yourself. There were no hand-outs back in those days, they knew how to WORK FOR and AT what they have and want. There were no songs by crazy overdone trainwreck celebrities trying to define love for you in one song and in the next telling you its "ok" to give yourself to a stranger for one night. They had this,
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Even though not every couple that has been married for 53+ years is a Christian and will quote scripture when they tell you how they love their spouse... I believe they would tell you something along those lines. The definition of love seems to have changed over the years in society. Its been distorted... and thats too bad.
These couples, the 53+ years ones, they know something in the deepest parts of who they are and where they come from, that we dont. We can learn a thing or two from them I think.
I wanna be like this nice old man that I met today. I wanna be able to tell my cashier, as I am still procrastinating and buying my Valentine a last minute gift 50 some years from now, "We've been married 53 years!".
Can you imagine? Wow.
Jesus help me to love for real, and help me to recieve real love.
