I Choose to Love You

When Chris asked me to marry him almost 26 years ago, he had a great proposal set up (that I completely messed up for him!) One of the things he told me was that we was "choosing" to love me.  Now, I'll admit that at first, I was taken aback and it took the "romance" out of it a bit for me.  I expected the man I was going to marry to tell me he was head over heels in love with me and passionately devoted only to me. (Yes, I know...like most women, I'm a hopeless romantic!) I was not ready to hear his words, "I choose to love you no matter what."

Now that I am 30 plus years into my Christian walk, I see it was the most amazing and romantic thing he could say to me.  No matter how unlovable I am, no matter how many bad moods I am in, no matter how many dinners I burn and if I am just downright mean, unloving or disrespectful...he still chooses to love me.  Of course, I could say the same things about him, because he's not perfect either. We have days where we might say we don't like each other very much, but the choice we made to love one another is always there.  It's not based on feelings.  Too many people get divorced today because they say the feelings have changed and they just don't feel like they are in love anymore.

Imagine if God felt that way about us. God doesn't wake up on Monday and say He doesn't feel like loving us.  We do things to disappoint Him, but He still loves us. We sin and He still loves us.  1 John 4:10-11 says, "This is real love--not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear Friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love one each other."  If God loves us that much we can be obedient and choose to love our spouse with the love that only comes from God.  The choice is there for each of us to make each day.