I'M IN "LIKE" (AS OPPOSED TO LOVE?) PART 3

Like I said in Part 2 of "I'm In Like (As Opposed to Love?)", there are times in your marriage when your spouse hurts or disappoints you, or when you have a disagreement, and…

All is not bliss!

There's a proper way to handle things when this occurs.

In Part 1, I told you about a young woman I know who didn't handle things properly, and now her marriage has broken up.

I know another young woman…

She's looking for love…

In all the wrong places…

Let's call her Lisa.

She and her husband are sharp, and they're good-looking. They run a business. Their home is beautiful. They have two adorable children. Their parents adore the grandkids. The couple is the quintessential perfect couple. All is idyllic. Or should be.

But not so.

He's been talking to her about being home more. She's saying he's too demanding. He says this. She says that. Yada, yada, yada.

Oh, yes, there's another man on the horizon.

But he's "only" her personal trainer.

Might he soon be personal to her in another area?

You know, it's a fact of life. Our mates do hurt or disappoint us. And we do have disagreements (okay, let's get down to the nitty gritty and call them what they are--arguments). That's just how things are. It's inevitable. You take two people with two different personalities and plop them down in a house and expect them to live in perfect harmony? It's not going to happen.

How we react to friction is the true test of love. Love is a choice, not a feeling, and we must choose to love despite disappointments or disagreements.

Repeat this with me: "Love is a choice not a feeling."

Now repeat that when your mate has hurt you. Or angered you. Or however s/he bothers you (your particular issues).

Hard, isn't it?

But it's true. It's an absolute. It's irrefutable.

We choose to love.

Even when we don't want to, or when we don't feel like it, or when we think we've been mistreated.

Kinda' goes along with the marriage vows we repeated at the altar. "For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health, until we're parted by death."

Why can't Sarah and Lisa realize that with some tweaking, they can stay in their marriages? If only they'd revisit the sizzle—something I coined (I think; I'd never heard it when I came up with it).

If only they'd remember how it was during their dating days with their present mates…

…instead of trying to find this sizzle with someone new…

…disclaimer ahead…