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TheDiscipleMd

One lesson I learned during the first years of my marriage is that expressing your love and devotion to your wife is not a sign of weakness. On the contrary, the law of the Lord has always been complete and full giving of one’s heart and soul to your husband or wife.

I am not sure how or why we end up marrying “the one.” But when I think of all the women who have lived, are living and will live, the chances of meeting and then marrying “the one” is far beyond numerical calculation. The odds are infinitesimal! With that in mind I have come to understand the unique relationship of the individual and of a couple.

There are many reasons I married my wife but I think it is best summed up by a conversation that I had with her a number of years ago. As we were riding in the car and for no apparent reason, I said to her that I loved her. She looked at me and replied, “Really….Why?” And you know, at that moment, I could have said a thousand things about “Why.” I could have repeated the words from a love song or perhaps a poem could have embodied my true emotion. But no flowery words or poetic songs seemed to capture the real reason. So my answer to her that night was, “I just do!”  “I just do” meant that I love her for all that she is, both good and bad. Loving someone is more than just loving the good side of who they are. It’s also being patient with and being understanding of the “prickly” side. You know, the side that is not so easy to embrace. But if you truly love someone, you seem to eventually even love “that” side as well.

My wife’s good side is much greater than her bad side, but true love to me, is loving the totality of the person. And that kind of love is hard to put in words but might be best expressed by Paul when he wrote to the Ephesians these words, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it… So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.(Ephesians 5:25, 28)

“I just do” may be a simplistic way of expressing our deepest love for our spouses, but the word “do” implies action such as was demonstrated by the Savior towards the church.  Words are great, but our actions always speak louder than our words. May we show our love by so “doing!”