When I was 10 years old I fell in love for the first time. My older brother had a friend named, Brian Jolie and the three of us went everywhere together.
Since my brother and Brian were both 13 years old, neither one of them recognized me as a person, let alone a woman. I was simply ‘the kid sister”.
But one day I realized I was experiencing some conflicting feelings about Brian, so I went and had a talk with my Mom about it. I was straight forward and simply admitted to her, “Mom? I think if Brian kissed me, I wouldn’t throw up or anything.”
Yes. If I didn’t feel the need to vomit at the thought of being kissed by Brian, it was obviously the real thing. I was in love!
Of course, we all know that the next step after falling in love is getting married. The fact that I was only 10 years old never seemed to enter my brain at any point. I needed more information if I was going to choose a life long partner, so I sought out my mother again. I remember our conversation as if it had just taken place yesterday. Truth always does have a way of sounding fresh and new.
I asked her, “ Mom. How do you know who is the right person to marry?”
Thankfully, although my mother found what I was saying very cute, she took my question seriously and laid the foundation for my attitude towards boys and men ever since.
She responded:
“Every person has 3 parts to them: the physical part, which is their body; the part that is called the soul , which houses the heart and mind and the spiritual part. If you and the man you will marry are alike in the spiritual part and you both believe in God and love Jesus, then you will have a great marriage and the other 2 parts will fall into line.
BUT, if the two of you don’t believe in the same things about God, then it won’t matter how much your brains, hearts and physical parts match. You will have a miserable marriage.”
For the past 36 years since we had that talk I have had the opportunity to watch many, many couples dating and sometimes they make it all the way down the aisle. They may have a meeting of the minds and a great sex life, but if the two of them are not matched up when it comes to God, their marriage will probably never make it.
You know, it doesn’t matter how fast time moves or how extreme are the changing circumstances, truth is truth and it cannot be altered, no matter what the situation. There is one thing none of us can run away from: MOTHER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!! (at least she has been up until now).
Since I have never been married, people have often asked me if I feel I “missed out” on not having a husband. Sometime I feel that way, but I was blessed to have come from a broken home. And boy was it broken! And through it I have learned one very basic truth: “The only thing worse than NOT being married, is being married to the WRONG man!”
