Tuesday, April 2, 2013

What do women really want?

   With a title like this, I'm fairly certain that many of you decided to read this - not because you believe for a moment that I have somehow figured out exactly what women want - but with more of a "one eyebrow raised" sort of skepticism. After all, how can any one man - especially a single man - know exactly what women want? It's a ludicrous thought, no? The female mind and heart are far too complex to decode for any man, right? Well, bear with me. You may just be surprised.

   Way back in 1990, a movie was released that really struck a chord with both men and women. In fact, it was, and remains, one of the most successful romantic comedies of all time. It was a peculiar little love story called "Pretty Woman," starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. I'm sure that most of you have seen the movie, but I'll recap the general theme just to refresh your memory.
  
   Richard Gere played the role of a wildly successful businessman who is in town for a short time. Not knowing exactly where he was in an unfamiliar place, he stopped and asked Julia Roberts - who played the role of a prostitute -  for directions.
   As the movie progresses, the two of them begin to spend a lot of time together, and truly enjoy each other's company. Not in a client/prostitute relationship, but more as compainions. Richard begins to see an incredible beauty in Julia, not looking at her as a prostitute, but as a valuable, precious woman. He pampers her, showers her with elaborate gifts, takes her to beautiful places, and defends her from anyone who might look down on her or judge her.
   But she gives him something too. She shows him the beauty of a simpler life, far removed from the cut-throat business world his life revolves around. The two eventually fall madly in love, and live happily ever after, we're led to assume.

   But what if there were more to the story? What if the story followed their relationship for the next decade? What if, at some point, Richard decided to completely abandon any riches he may have had to live in relative poverty, simply so he could be with her? What if he then spent many years caring for her, encouraging her, admiring her beauty - both inward and outward, lifting her up, and continually insisting that nothing would be impossible for her if she simply believed in the love they had for each other? What if he went even further, and at some point in the movie was put in a position where he gave to give up his own life to save hers........and did so willingly, without hesitation? What if he did all of this while never once mentioning the bad choices she had made in her past, but forgetting them as if they had never happened? What woman on this planet would not give anything to be with a man who loved her that much?

   This may come as a shock to you, but that's exactly how the bible tells husbands to love their wives. Don't believe me? If not, read this:

  "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her  to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,  and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."   Ephesians 5:25-18

   I've heard many people say that the bible is just old, outdated, stale, and completey irrelevant in today's society. Let me ask you this: Does that sound outdated? Irrelevant in our modern world? Does it sound old, stale, and rediculous? Or does it sound like the kind of thing that could completely revolutionize a marriage?
   Us men will never be able to do this perfectly. After all, we're only human. But if we simply tried to do the best that we can on a daily basis to love our wives as described here, I have no doubt we would witness them coming alive in ways we never dreamed possible. Why? Because this is what a woman really wants more than anything else............To be loved.

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