That's Not Love

   There is a lot of talk about love these days, but very few people
know that love is hard work. I love you, a phrase we have even taught
dogs to say. Sometimes I'd rather have a dog saying it, than a wife beater,
or a pimp, or a dope pusher. No, not sometimes, but all the time.
    Co-dependancy is used as an excuse for love a lot. A woman sells
her body, so her boyfriend or husband can buy drugs.
    That's not love!
    A woman gets beaten up by a drunk husband, at the jail, she won't
press charges, because he says he loves her.
    That's not love!
    An adult child comes home, and tells his parents he loves them. then
he robs his parents for money.
    That's not love!
    A couple gets married after a short time of romance, the marriage
doesn't last two years.
    That's not love!
    I had a pastor tell me once, marriage is like two great stones cut at
a quarry. These stones could survive forever apart, but they are brought
together to build each other up. A good stone mason will take these two
stones and start rubbing them back and forth against each other. As the
rough edges of the stones, start to rub against each other, the rough edges
become smoother, the stones get harder and harder to move as they meld
together. Pretty soon the stones won't move anymore, they have become
as one.
    That is what God, The Creator, does with a marriage. Two people
that could survive apart, decide to have a lasting relationship. These
two people, bring differences into the marriage, but that is what God
wants. As these two different people rub against each other, there is
friction as God takes the rough edges off both of their lives. Pretty
soon the friction becomes less and less, and the melding becomes tighter
and tighter. Soon they become as one, able to withstand all that Satan
and the world can throw at them, as long as The Creator stays in the
mix. Things begin to crumble without God.