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
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