Love Is... Heat Over Time

When your husband is sick, and you're all alone with your kids, and you have no more reserves of strength (not that I would have any recent experience with this) and you start to protest, "this isn't really what I signed up for!", THAT'S the moment when God reminds you.... "these ARE the vows you took. This is what that meant, though you didn't see this situation as the future of those words. All you could see was the "love" Hollywood sells. But that was just the igniting flame."

True love requires commitment. Choice. Will. The decision to love regardless of what the kickbacks are. That doesn't mean feelings aren't involved, but sometimes it is just the sheer determination to be charitable and act lovingly toward another person that keeps love going.

Just like a burner, heating up a delicious homemade sauce... there are variable temperatures that need to be used to make it turn out just right. It starts out with that ignition... without that initial spark and flame, there'd be no heat to the sauce at all. But that initial heat isn't good for anything but boiling over quickly.

What a good sauce needs is heat and time. Sometimes it requires the slow, steady heat to melt things that have grown cold, and sometimes the heat needs to be turned up in order to make everything gel and fit together. Sometimes just keeping the sauce warmed is the best you can do. Varying heats over time make for an interesting and delicious sauce. If you stop mid-recipe, nothing will come out right.

Commitment is required to see things to their delicious end. In sauces
and marriage.