Now maybe some of you out there are saying, "Come on Mike! Isn't it a little presumptuous to write your history in advance?" I don't think so. I think it is important to write your history and then use it as a road map to move down the road. Write it, then live it. What's wrong with that? I have no idea what our future may bring, but I know that we will face it with the Lord, and I know that we will face it together. Those two things I know... for sure.
Thank you, Donna. Thanks for having me. Thanks for standing by my side thru thick and thin. Thank you for sharing my joys and my heartaches. Happy October 18th, Love.
Here's something that I wrote a few years ago. It's about me and Donna. It's about my parents and grandparents, and my wife's mother and father and her grandparents. It's about all of the married couples who have stuck it out. It's about thousands and tens of thousands of couples whose marriages have stood the test of time.
Happy Love Day to all of you.
A Letter To Young Couples (Good News and Bad News)
I have some news for all of you young folks who are just
starting out on the road towards matrimonial bliss. I don’t want to scare you
unduly, but since I have traveled some distance down the same road, I thought
that I would share with you what your journey may entail.
First the bad news…
You have a lot of work ahead of you…. Years, and years of
toil, tons of dirty diapers, countless sleepless nights with sick babies, day
care bills, doctor bills, all kinds of bills, with no apparent end in sight.
You’re going to get cranky. You’re going to cry a lot. You’re going to discover
that your spouse has all kinds of irritating habits, which you hadn’t noticed
during your courtship. You will have to work at getting along together. Your
feet and your back are going to hurt a lot more. You’re not going to feel
romantic, or even warm and fuzzy all of the time.
Your kids will get bigger, and you will shrink, except for
your nose, which will seem to get larger, and droop significantly. You guys
will notice that hair will begin to grow in places that it didn’t use to grow,
like out of your ears, and on your back. Hair will no longer grow in places,
where it use to grow, like on top of your head. Whatever hair you have left,
will eventually turn white. You gals will notice that parts of you will begin
to sag. You’ll get bags under your eyes, and wrinkles, lots of wrinkles.
Your kids will infuriate you, impoverish you, encumber you,
and mock you for being out of touch with current culture. They will reject your
advice and counsel, but never fail to take your money. They are likely to drag
home stray dogs, cats, or worse yet mangy looking boyfriends, or spooky looking
girlfriends. They will eat all of the food in your house, and leave the mess
for you to clean up. Sometimes you will feel that you are trapped in a cycle of
toil and drudgery, and nobody understands what you are experiencing, and nobody
appreciates what you are doing.
It’s going to get harder to hear, and harder to read fine
print. You will finally give up and buy multiple pairs of reading glasses from
Walgreen’s. You will disperse them all over the house, because otherwise you
can’t remember where you laid them down. It will become increasingly difficult to
remember names. It will become increasingly difficult to do things that you use
to be able to do, until finally one day you will quit trying. Pain and
stiffness will become your constant companions, and you will long for your
youth again.
Now for the good news…
You will find happiness along the way, at the most
unexpected times and places. You will find joy where God has left it for you.
You will learn to be happy with what you have, instead of wishing for what you
don’t have.
You will develop a kind of telepathy, which allows you to
communicate your inner thoughts and moods to your spouse, even across a crowded
room, with only your eyes.
You will remember the things that your seniors told you long
ago. You will realize how wise that they were, and how much they must have
loved you to have shared their wisdom with you.
One day, out of the blue, your children will thank you for
all that you have done for them. They will ask how they can ever repay the debt
that they owe to you. You will give them a bit of the good news, bad news… They
owe you nothing. The debt that they owe is to their own children, to give them
the same love and support that they have received from you.
Your love for your life mate will grow and grow, richer and
deeper. It will intensify day by day, until it becomes the most powerful force
in your lives. When the winds of life howl around you, it will sustain you.
When the rains of travail beat against you, it will shelter you. You will cling
to each other, and ride out the storms. He will be your anchor, and she will be
your light.
Your names will become invariably linked together, until one
is rarely spoken without the other.
Your love will draw you together, until your souls meet and
you become one in Christ. You will live together, inwardly, in a place visible
only to the two of you, where nothing can separate you except death.
Together you will experience joy, tribulation, laughter,
tears, ecstasy, and pain. You will endure all things together. You will share
all things together, and you will wish for eternity… together.
M.J.
Smith
October,
2004
No comments:
Post a Comment