At first, I passed this exercise off but the more I thought about it and the more I read and contemplated this simple sentence, the more I realized this isn't just a small three word sentence. It's a statement and it's a hard statement to truly live.
Faithfulness isn't about being with just one person. Faithfulness is about being true and being steadfast with your love. Faithfulness is about those times when your spouse's idiosyncracies drive you up the wall and you wonder if you can handle another quirk. It's about saying at the point where you feel like you are going to break, I love you, faults, quirks, annoyances and all. It's about feeling underappreciated but realizing it's ok, I love you.
Why is it easier to do so with your offspring than your child? If you think about it, as parents we have much faith in our child(ren). Why is our threshold higher for our offspring and not for our spouse? For me, I sometimes feel like my partner should be my partner. I think it's very common for couples to teeter on the scales. It's what makes a relationship truly stronger. But at the same time, although I have high expectations for both child and spouse, I look as my spouse as an adult and thus he should be more mature and responsible. He should have my back and I'll have him. We shouldn't burden each other. What I need to remind myself is that when the weight gets very heavy to not consider it a burden. Like all good relationships, the scales go up and down. Today I am the stronger one. Tomorrow he will be the stronger one.
Faithfulness is saying, "I trust you with my love." That's a huge responsibility.
The exercise asks why is this love impossible without the love of God.
The simple answer is God's love begets everything we have. That's what I tell my child daily. But there is more. God so loved us he gave us his only son. He said, "I trust you with my love. I know you still won't understand. I know my son will have to suffer for you to understand yet I still trust you with my love."
How incredible is that?
If God can do that, surely I can remember during times of trials, "I trust you with my love."
