Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Love

Love is enough.

Caring about someone almost as much as you care about yourself is not enough.

The problem with modern life is we tend to confuse the two.

Here's a few tips for helping figure it out:
1. If you think he should always forgive you for saying hurtful things when you are angry at him.  Because, after all, it's pretty hard to control yourself when you're mad and people say stupid stuff when they are mad all the time.

That's not love.

2.  If you can get angry without wanting to hurt because you would never hurt him.

That's love.

Yesterday I read a Facebook post from a young woman who's long term relationship just ended.  She was understandably devastated.  I have no idea what ended the relationship or how healthy the relationship had been.  I was bothered by her post, however.  She basically made a claim that everyone says stupid hurtful things in a fight with someone you love.  That such behavior is common and therefore always forgivable.   He couldn't have loved her enough because he couldn't forgive whatever it was that was said in the last fight.

I feel for the young lady.  I'm not saying she was in the wrong in the relationship, because I don't know the circumstances.  Honestly, I don't care. It's none of my business and I wish her well in the future.

I will say her post was wrong.  Not everyone behaves like that when they argue.  Not everyone finds such behavior acceptable.  It is not the behavior of mature, loving adults.

So I worry about her.  I worry about the teenage girls she's friends with who saw that post and believed it.  I worry about all the women who commented on her post basically telling her she was right.  That everything said in a fight is always forgivable.

We have these modern examples of romantic movies with absolutely horrible relationship patterns.  They meet.   They fall in love.  They have some stupid big, horrible fight with absolutely horrible things said to one another.  They make up and everything is hunky dory again.  Happily Ever After.  Same story in romance books.  There's this idea that big horrible fights equal passion in a relationship.  And hey,  who doesn't want passion?

I'm not saying that loving couples never argue.  Of course, they do.  They just control their tongues.  They don't say things to hurt each other.  They can disagree without being horrible to each other.  This is real.  This is the way it should work.

I'm rambling.  I guess I was bothered by that post because it's such a pervasive idea in American life.  It worries me.  I try to teach my children, but what will their spouses believe? Will my sons have to put up with that kind of crap (or think they should put up with it)? Will my daughters?  I don't know.  I don't think this issue will keep me up at nights, but it was bothering me enough that I felt the need to write these things down, to structure them, to send them out "into the void."

I don't know everything.  Some days I don't feel I know very much at all.  I do know Love is enough.  But it has to be love.   Caring is never enough to get us through.  Life is hard.  Life needs true love.

14 comments:

define.interesting said...

I love this. I know that it's so hard to control my temper when I fight with my boyfriend. But i always try, because I love him. And this reminded me of that :) thank you

Anonymous said...

Absolutely! I agree. It is never OK to say hurtful things. That said, sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes the other person is willing to forgive... sometimes not.

Great post! It touched my heart today.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful post! I totally agree with you. I have a son that felt my view and ways were out of touch and old fashioned. He is extremely attractive and is able to get the attention of the most beautiful girls. I tried to raise him right. I am divorced and my ex was a horrible partner. My son choose to emulate him in relationships. I warned him that he was going to find "the one" and if he didn't change the way he dealt with women when angry, he would end up alone and heart broken. He laughed at me because I am still single and his father is on his fourth marriage, having never really been alone. Well he finally found the one. They were together for four years. He was planning to propose this year. She left him in March. When he called to tell me, he said the first thing that flashed through his mind was my warning years ago. He not only has a temper that he refuses to control, he also lies. In fact, he and I are not on good terms right now due to his treatment of me and his lies to me. My son is 30 years old and hadn't the slightest clue about true love and self respect. I warned him many times about his lies and that only he was responsible for his integrity. To me, my word is gold. To him, it is what ever he thinks the person wants to hear and what will get him what he wants. I am heart broken that this is how my son turned out. I tried my best to teach him right from wrong. I guess my way took too much work. His father's way of lies and angry outbursts that left the partner shattered won out. Bless you for this post and being a great mom. I am going to try once again to get my son to hear me and turn his life around before he ends yup exactly like his father. The funny part to me is he sees his dad's faults very clearly. He just refuses to look inside to see the same faults lie inside himself too.

xo Sydnee said...

I've written a lot of blogs that pertain to love and marriage, prayer and hope. I invite you to stop by my blog. :)

Hope you're having a great 2014.

<3 Sydnee
sydneepeacock.blogspot.com
etsy.com/shop/sydneepeacock

Anonymous said...

So true, and perfectly put.
Emma.

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