I'M IN "LIKE" TODAY (AS OPPOSED TO LOVE?) PART 2

I know another young woman who'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. Lisa and Jeff are 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, this is a fact of life: our mates do things to hurt us or disappoint us. 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 hurts you. Or angers 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 you'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…

Oh, I'm still pining for Milton. We're away from each other for a few days while I'm visiting our daughter (I rarely leave him). Thank the Lord for phones! They convey sweet nothings very well.