Stay In Love.
A couple had a grand 50th wedding anniversary celebration. As was his habit the past 50 years, the husband cut and gave the end part of the loaf of bread to his wife. Suddenly, the wife burst into tears and exploded, "I can't take this anymore. Why do you always give me that part of the bread?" The husband kept his peace and then looked at the wife with such loving eyes and said, "My dear wife, all these years, I have always wanted that part of the bread, but I thought you wanted it, so I made it my sacrifice every morning out of love for you, all these years."
Lesson of the story? Sacrifice and communication. After all these years, do you still sacrifice for each other and still really communicate with each other? Or has life become a sacrifice for both of you as you continually excommunicate each other?
I wonder how many couples out there still hold each other's hands? Someone said that newlyweds hold each other's hands because of love. After some years of marriage, they still hold each other's hands--out of self-defense!
Do you still open the car door for the wife? Elsewhere I read that if you see a husband opening the car door for the wife, there are two possible reasons. One, maybe the car is new. Two, maybe, the wife is new. Or, have you heard about the couple who were so sweet that when the husband would come home from work, the wife and their dog would be waiting at the gate, and as soon as the husband alighted, their dog would come out barking and the wife would bring the slippers. However, some years later, as soon as the husband arrived from work, the wife would come out barking and the dog would bring the slippers!
What happened? What went wrong? They did not make their loving a daily decision. They did not remain in love - maybe they did not remain in His love.
How about love in our families? Do we remain in love as the years go by? The greatest wish of all parents is that their children live in peace and harmony and continue to move and care for each other, long after they are gone from this world. I have listened to parents whose hearts are broken because their children do not live in peace, do not speak to each other and go about living their separate lives.
Worse, some of the children do not even care for the welfare of their parents. It pains me deep inside whenever I hear an old person confide to me his/her desire to go to the next life because the children don't call and don't care and don't even visit. Nobody has time to listen. Some are even shouted at and just simply taken for granted. They who loved us so much deserve our utmost love till the very end. Let us go back to basics. Love them now; express your love for them now while they are still alive.
By Jerry M. Orbos, SVD. Excerpted from his article, "Moments."
