Investments

There are many "investments" that one can make in this life, and we all prioritize them according to our perceived value.

Each one has a cost/investment to obtain them.

Then there is the "cost to continue" motivating us to carefully protect our investment.

Part of "maintaining" our investment is to "exercise" or use it as much as need be to "have gain" from it.

These investments can be both physical and spiritual.

The short list of mine would prioritize as such:

Highest value: Jesus Christ.

Cost: Faith in Him and His death and Resurrection.

Cost to continue: His Word, Prayer, and Servant hood.

Maintenance: Doing those things that He did and greater things.

The gain: Eternal Life, helping others out of a True Love and sincere heart, introducing others to Jesus.

I said this would be a short list. I have many investments in this vale but I give a very close second to:

My wife:

The cost: Unconditional Love.

The cost to continue: expressing Unconditional Love through thought, word, and deed.

Maintenance: all my attention when she speaks. That means "I listen". Nothing shows a woman that you Love her more than when you listen. Why? Because listening is more costly than silver, gold, precious stones or anything that can be made by the hands of man.

To listen costs the most precious price of all: "time". It's the only thing that once given it can't be taken back. You invest/spend it once, in it's frame,and then it is "set in concrete" as you cannot change what you did with it.

How many marriages would be alive today if the precious jewel of "time to listen" were given instead of expensive fillers.

Time to listen, especially with the heart, opens to doors to unlimited value perceived by the wife. "He took time to listen to me and what's important to me" is the basic heart cry of every woman that has bound herself to man in matrimony.

A man who can respond to his wife's words with the same importance as she spoke them will find that his wife will be free to "respect her husband". That respect will become the seed to grow into the Unconditional Love that is needed to "ensure" the marriage and it's future growth.

God designed men to be leaders in the marriage. He commands them to "Love their wives" and the woman to "respect" their husbands. Know this men, it's hard to respect the man when he won't even make the investment of "time", (that irreplaceable jewel), to "know his wife's heart".

Most men don't realize the potential that is locked within the wife to "come along side" as a help meet to make him the kind of successful he is destine for.

In marriage a man and woman become "one". "How can two : walk together unless they be agreed?" and I would add: agreement calls for "intimate, honest" conversation. That implies that "he who leads" knows the hearts of those who follow because he listens. The wife will give "non contested" support for her man when she knows that his decisions are part based on her intimating her heart to him.

What does it mean to "listen"?

To listen is to give equal consideration to the speaker as you want to have.

It means to recognize their passion as equal to yours.

Realizing that their vision is just as strong as yours.

The end means of "listening" is the root of marriage: to become one.

Two cannot become one if both speak and neither listen!

Two cannot become one if only one speaks and no one listens!

Two cannot become one if no one speaks!

Two cannot become one if neither have the "time" to invest "

The Biblical marriage of oneness can only be obtained by investing time and listening to each others hearts.This has a long lasting effect on a marriage and it bares it's own fruit of Love, Joy and Peace in the Holy Spirit. Name one marriage that couldn't use a good dose of that fruit? Believe it or not men that a simple thing such as lending an ear could empower your marriage to levels that you could only imagine or pray for.

All that you hold important to you convinces your wife of how important she is to you.

So be brave..............just ask her what she thinks about where she stands!

Let her answer the question "are we still becoming one"?

Then ask her "how can I make this better"?

Then ...........take time to listen!

Love

Jerry and Elise

Pure Love

Ever since we were married in 1972 the same question has been asked me countless times by both friends and complete strangers.

What was that question?????

How did someone who looks like you end marrying someone like her? (And you thought that Beauty and the Beast was fantasy! In reality it is my life story.)

Let me answer that obvious question:

Pure Love! That's it, just Pure Love.

Pure: not deceiving, not demanding, not expecting, not self indulging, Pure.

Pure: knowing that I could "lay down my life for her" without thought.

Pure: willing to commit my life to demanding labor to support her.

Pure: vowing to "be there" through thick and thin, laughter and weeping, up's and down's, trials and tribulations.

Pure: recognizing her full potential before I knew her. Seeing that she was innocent by her smile. Feeling her warmth in the touch of her hand, experiencing the passion for life with her that I could see lasting 46+ years and keeps on inspiring through eternity.

Pure Love. With a capital P and L to emphasize its strength and eternal purpose.

I have sought for this higher Pure Love before the time that woman ever had an attraction to me. At 12 yrs old I knew that woman were God's best gift to man aside from Jesus Christ. I knew that someday I would know how to Love the way man was meant to by design, God's design. Through all the temptation of maturing as a man, God had a plan for me that kept me "out of the pond" where all those woman were swimming. Just ask anyone that I went to school with. I'm not ashamed of the lack of participation along those lines. Actually it kept me from being "confused" about what Pure Love was. If I was going to participate in all the expression of Love it was only going to be once. A solid plan then and it still holds True now.

After I met Elise and started this Pure Love learning process my "need to know how" became front and center.

I applied all that I knew up to that time, then started to seek an instructor that "wrote the book" on it. God was my only choice as He is Love. Who better to teach then "He who is" what He is teaching? One of His first instructions to me was to "listen" to my wife on all manners of relationship that effects her as a woman. Then to make sure that I was listening He effected "things" to test my comprehension. At the beginning I failed a lot, but as time (years) went by my scores came up. To help with the process God did help me out with dreams and visions to help me understand what replicated His Love to her. Between God teaching and listening to Elise, obeying both instructors, Pure Love grew and will never stop growing. And I will never stop learning from both.

So what has this gained me?

A completely intimate growing relationship with God.

A completely intimate continuing relationship with Elise.

A wife that knows she is Love by me above life itself.

A wife that is confident in her husband.

A wife that knows that she is priceless in my eyes.

A wife who is not only free to pursue her dreams but knows that I support them.

A wife that knows that nothing she says will ever be received with criticism or mocking.

She can rest in my Pure Love knowing that I Love every thing about her.

But that's not the end of this post:

Love comes from a bottomless spirit that God keeps filling so that it never runs out.

I never expected Pure Love to be reciprocated because Love is Unconditional and doesn't need to be returned. But God in His great mercy showed me one day the depth of my wife's Love in a vision. It was at a time when her suffering with this tumor was at it's worse. I always knew that she deeply loved me but to see it for what it really was broke me as it still does every time I recall it.

So enough about me!

What about you?

Do you Love passionately enough to "lift up your wife"? Her heart? Her Spirit? Her Life?

Do you desire to Love her Unconditionally like God love's you both?

Remember that Unconditional (Pure) Love is a verb. It's always moving and thinking of new ways to express itself.

A word, a long hug, a tender kiss, a brushing touch. Words like "I Love you" while you are staring deep into her eyes. Opening the doors for her or serving her first. Telling her how much you really appreciate what she has done or what she is doing now. Hold hands publicly, better still at home where it won't be seen by anyone but you and known of her.

Love can be described in many words but most of all it's described in intimacy. Make everything about the Love you express in thought, word and deed be intimate! The way God designed it to be. Physical intimacy is very important but only a very small facet of Pure Love. Pure Love is intimacy with your wife on an ever increasing scale, in "all ways" and "always". Never ending.

So this was a little bit about me, a bit about Elise, some thoughts on God's design, but a lot about Pure Love.

The ball is in your court.

God bless.

Love

Jerry and Elise