"Swift Love"

Ok, I admit... I like two or three of Taylor Swifts songs. They're catchy, and a couple of them are just sweet love songs. Her newest one, "Mine," gets stuck in my head more often than not. The fact that I heard it 4 times in the 6 hours I worked today might have something to do with that... (I also heard "Love Story" twice and "You Belong With Me" three times. Oh, how I wish we had better music options at work!) "Mine" is the story of a college guy and girl who fall in love... One of the lines in her song struck me today and gave me something to think about.

I was a flat risk afraid of fallin',

Wondering why we bother with love if it never lasts.

Ouch.

Is that really what it's come to? Are we really afraid to fall in love because we don't think it has any chance of lasting? The evidence is sadly there, with the divorce rate in America being over 50%. If you look at high school and even college relationships, you see the "date 'em and dump 'em" mentality becoming increasingly popular. If this were the way I operated, I could see why people think this way.

Swift's song goes on to have a somewhat decent ending. She and the boyfriend have a fight and she runs out onto the street, convinced he is about to dump her because "that's all she's ever known." He apparently has some smarts, because he follows her out into the street and tells her he will never leave her alone.

I'm fairly sure that this is the first song I've heard lately where the couple actually stays together.

I'm realizing the more that I think about love, the more I realize that I have a rather special perspective of it.

Why?

Because of my parents. I'm blaming them ;-).

Twenty-six years of marriage, and I'm pretty sure they are more in love than they were when they first said "I do." My parents have given me an incredible example of what it means to be in love. What it means to love. For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, they have loved each other endlessly. They have survived 4 kids, job changes, and cancer...

When Mom was sick, I watched Dad serve her selflessly. He never complained when she needed to go to the ED suddenly after a chemo treatment, he never got frustrated with the long nights of sickness, he thought she was beautiful bald, he slept long nights in the hospital. I watched as he loved her in a way he hadn't before. It was subtle in a way, but there was a definite change. To see how caring, protective, and affectionate he was towards her while she was so sick was amazing. Especially when that kind of experience tears so many people apart.

There is something about stepping back and watching them, that makes me smile... Their date nights, their dances in the kitchen, their jokes, Dad hiding while he plays the banjo, hearing them talk late into the night, their kisses (in aisle 13!), their tears, their prayers, and their obvious affection 26 years later.

Watching the way my parents love each other has given me some high standards of what Love truly is. Unlike Taylor Swift, I know love DOES last. Sacrificial Love, the kind my parents have shown to each other, can last a lifetime.

Mom, Dad... I love you both! I am so thankful for parents that I can go to, parents who know me, parents who have taught me what it means to Love the way that Christ Loves, even when it's difficult and the world says "quit." Thank you for your example of sacrificial Love, for setting my expectations high, and for allowing me to watch as you both learned to Love through different situations!! I know now that true Love is not instant, but a constant journey that only gets sweeter as the days go on.

P.S. Mom, I'm minutes short of Wednesday ;-)