More Than Words

Eight years ago today, I woke with an excited anticipation of marrying my best friend, my high school sweetheart of then five years. Fast forward eight years later from that date and I awake with thoughts of eight wonderful years together and a similar anticipation of a joyous celebration of our marriage. However, I am immediately distracted by the sounds and realities that these eight years have brought to us.
First, I hear the sound of my wife puking her guts out from an all night sickness. Second, I hear the crying of our now two week old daughter and third, the constant questioning and needs of our four year old. The thought then occurred to me that we will not be enjoying a nice quiet dinner for two at some romantic getaway (translation – McDonalds without a playground) but more importantly and significantly I realized how much my marriage commitment has been and must be More Than Words.
So often, in our society, our only love and affection for people comes from meaningless words, devoid of any action to back them up. Or worse, the only action regarding our commitments last only long enough to get what we want and then the display of action ceases to exist quicker than a bag of skittles on my kitchen counter. If it is really love, in the purest form, then he/ she or it will hang in there when the going gets tough. True love will not quit when they don’t get what they really want.
Love is offered in so many cheap ways, ways that will fill our temporary needs for acceptance but leave us quicker than it came. We should not settle for anything less than love that comes with the sweetest of words and actions to follow. The world wants the pleasure of love without all the “strings attached” of hanging around for all the work. Much of the love I see today is really only a love of self, a desire to have our needs met, and if our needs go uncared for then we look somewhere else. Love is work and anyone who just wants the minutes of pleasure over the hours of work isn’t worth the time.
I love that my faith is in a God who loves me with words and actions, the ultimate example. He told me he loved me and he showed me he loved me by sending his son to die for me, giving me hope, assurance and promise of a life in Heaven with him. Everything else this world offers is just second helpings compared to this love of Jesus Christ. “This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to do the same for our brother and sisters” (1 John 3:16).
The world offers empty promises along with continual yet quickly fleeing highs that always leave me empty when they are gone. Love that is more than words, from those closest to me and from Christ leaves me with continual hope even in the midst of my most difficult days, like an anniversary spent caring for a sick wife. It is then that I remember my commitment, More Than Words, “I vow to love you as my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in SICKNESS and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part”. Happy #8 Sarah! I love you!