HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY AMANDA!!!

Dear Amanda,

I have always been struck by Paul's comment in Ephesians 5:25 that husbands are to love their wives. I know there is good deal of expansion that comes out of this thought in the next couple of verses, but I still have found it so odd that he chose to say- "Husbands, love your wives." It seems like saying, "Dogs, bark" or "Wind, blow"; it just seems like it goes without saying. That was until Dr. Warren pointed out in the New Testament class we took together that in Paul's time, most men did not in fact, and really were not expected to, love their wife. Not just an emotional or cognitive idea of loving, but a loving that chooses each day to put the other person above one's self. A love that wakes up each day and says, "Today, I will consider your needs above my own and I will live in such a way that your life is truly vibrant because I choose to seek your greatest good." This command to love your wife was a radical love, and it is this idea of choosing to love each day that represents my heart for you. I desire to wake each day, and say, "Today, I will love my wife." Not because I have to force myself into such an attitude or because it's some type of special thought that will produce an action I wouldn't otherwise do, but because the phrase reflects how I truly feel toward you.

Before getting married, I heard a few guys, in reference to their spouse, say, "I would marry her all over again." Cognitively I knew what that meant, but it didn't really strike me as captivating until I began thinking about the depth of my love for you and how I could express that to you this year. But, Wow!, to think that if I had 500 lives to live all over again, and with all the women in the world, and with all the what-if's and why-not's and might-have-been's that comprise the past couple of decades of our lives...to think that even if I had this one life to do all over again- to be able to say, "I would marry her all over again," that is my love for you Amanda!

I will never be able to comprehend why in God's providence He chose to place us together- His ways truly our higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. But I do praise Him that in His perfect wisdom and understanding He brought our lives together for our good and ultimately for His glory- that is the greatest of joys- to know our relationship is not a matter of chance or accident but a beautiful plan in the hands of our Creator and King! May this Valentine's Day, and all of 2007 and beyond, be characterized by this joy that comes from having the incredible opportunity of loving one another deeply for the glory of our God!

To the one whom I would marry again yesterday, today, and tomorrow- I choose to love you, Amanda!

--owen