Sunday, August 28, 2005
Yet another reminder by Joshua Harris....
To the girls out there :
lamenting the unrealistic ideas many girls had of marriage, Advice columist Ann Landers leveled with the girls..
I tell them that all marriages are happy.
It's the living together afterward that's tough.
I tell them that a good marriage is not a gift,
It's an achievement.
That marriage is not for kids.It takes guts and maturity.
It separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls.
I tell them that marriage is tested daily by the ability to compromise.
Its survival can depend on being smart enough to know what's worth fighting about.
Or making an issue of even mentioning.
Marriage is giving-- and more important,it's forgiving.
And it is almost always the wife who MUST do these things.
Then, as if that were not enough,she MUST be willing to forget what she forgave.
Often that is the hardest part.
Oh, I have leveled all right.
If they dun get my message, Buster,
It's because they don't want to get it....
And to the guys...:
A women's question - Lena Lathrop
Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the Hand above?
A woman's heart, and a woman's life --
And a woman's wonderful love.
Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing
As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what others have died to win,
With a reckless dash of a boy.
You have written my lesson of duty out,
Manlike,you have questioned me.
Now stand at the bars of my woman's soul
Until I shall question thee.
You require your mutton shall always be hot,
Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart be true as God's stars
And as pure as His heaven your soul.
You require a cook for your mutton and beef,
I require a far greater thing;
A seamstress you're wanting for socks and shirts --
I look for a man and a king.
A king for the beautiful realm called Home,
And a man that his Maker,God,
Shall look upon as He did on the first
And say,"It is very good."
I am fair and young,but the rose may fade
From this soft young cheek one day;
Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves,
As you did 'mong the blossoms of May?
Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,
I may launch my all on its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she is made a bride.
I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my life
To be all you demand of me.
If you cannot be this, a laundress and cook
You can hire and little to pay;
But a woman's heart and a woman's life
Are not to be won that way.
(This is so true...and almost exactly the way i tot...)
Joshua Harris continues to write..
To girls reading, I pray this poem serves as a reminder to keep your standards high.Require all things that are "grand and true".As you consider the possibility of marriage, don't lower your standards for a moment;any guy who asks you to do so isnt worth your time.
And to the guys, we have our work cut out for us, dont we? My hope for us is that we would truly grasp the costliness, the pricelessness, of a woman's love. It is not small thing, no game, to invite a girl to accompany us through life. May we earn the right to make such a request by striving to be men of integrity -- men whose hearts are oceans "strong and true". Then, and only then, should we stand at the bars of a woman's soul and ask to gain entrance.
Signing off...Tingyu^^
