Modern Love

I just finished reading this article in the NY Times called Modern Love
Those Aren’t Fighting Words, Dear By Laura A. Munson.

The article is about a woman whose husband came to her one day and told her he didn't love her anymore, he wasn't sure he ever did. She decided she didn't believe him. She stuck it out. She internally decided to give him six months and waited to see what happened. She went about her life with her children, kept setting his place at the dinner table and waited.

And he came back around.

If only more wives (or husbands for that matter) had the strength to do this. I find it interesting that the article was titled modern love... Have we come full circle? Is this idea of love... waiting and continuing to love someone who is being unloveable such a new idea that it is now modern? Has divorce so permeated our society that it is the normal, expected result? How sad...

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul writes:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

What this wife did is the very definition of love. She didn't let her pride get in the way. She didn't let her anger and hurt fester. She didn't hold a grudge. She hoped, she persevered.

I imagine that this must have been one of the most difficult things she had ever done. She must have had moments of horrible pain and frustration. And in no way do I believe that every woman who tries to wait for her husband to work through a tough time will have the same result. Some husbands will still leave. But don't most people stay in a job they hate much longer than six months while they contemplate their options and make a decision. If more people, husbands and wives alike, would give their rocky marriages six months who knows what the definition of Modern Love could be.