Does She Know This...Really Know This?

I'm about to turn 45, and in a few weeks my bride and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. There has been a lot of reflection in my life lately. So I was wondering about my relationship with my wife, and whether or not she really knew how I felt about her.

I thought of all that she has done in the last 20 years to make our house a home, and it dawned on me, that all the cleaning, laundry, dinners, etc. those things I could have hired out from a service, she didn't really have to do those things. The home repairs (which my bride loves to do) and the yard work (which she doesn't like me to do - apparently I don't do as good a job as her), all of these things are things that I am very appreciative that she has done for all these years, but again they are things that I could hire someone to do for me.

With all of my thinking about this, a realization came to me, and that was really what I need my wife for, is companionship and a never-ending relationship. You see, all of the stuff that we clamor after, and all the things that we scurry around doing, really when all is said and done, don't amount to anything, after all when I read in the Bible I see that eventually God is going to burn everything up with fire, and create a new heaven and a new earth. So all this stuff we are trying to gain and achieve (while not bad for us to have to be sure) is not the end result of our lives.

Remember, we are made in the image of God. God is an Eternal Being, so therefore we are eternal beings as well. The one thing that will last throughout eternity is the relationships that we have made while we were on this earth. So the thing that my bride needs to know from me is that she is loved by me, not for what she can do for me, but that she is loved by me, for who she is to me. My eternal companion and friend.

So, let me pose this question to you, does your bride know this...really know this? Or is she operating under the assumption that it is what she can do for you, not who she is to you? I know that I hadn't thought of this until yesterday, and I am making a change in my life so that she knows that it is who she is to me, not anything else that matters to me. She is loved, because I choose daily to love her from an unconditional heart....strength and honor.......