Telling the truth in a world full of lies.

Ok.  I have to tell you that when I got married 10 years ago, I fully expected the Fairy Tale.  I had found or rather God had given me the perfect man for me, and somehow I figured that the life we were entering into together would be free of conflict and struggle.  God had shown me that this was the man for me and I couldn't imagine that His purpose could be anything but perfection for us from day 1.  I hadn't had much experience with dating and men and the few relationships that I'd had never made it beyond the infatuation stage, but somehow I had it in my head that love was all about a "feeling".   And when I had the "feeling" I knew that I loved my man.  Then something unexpected happened to me.  I am one of those people who have a crazy bad reaction to the hormones in  birth control and at the advise of my doctor, I had chosen an injection form that stayed in your body for 3 months.  So 1 month before my wedding I went from being a level headed, rational, happy woman in "love"  to being a mess.  I was a wreck struggling to hold onto that feeling I thot was love while all my other wacked out emotions were telling me my world was falling apart.  Some people have their Fairy Tale bubble burst slowly over time, but this was God's way of speaking to me.  He shattered most of my pre conceived notions about marriage within the first few months.  And my very patient, wise and loving husband began to tell me the truth about what love really was...a choice you make daily to love...love being an action and not a feeling.  And that's what I want to talk about today... the marriages that end because people just aren't "in love" anymore.  The idea that love is a feeling vs a choice to act in love is a deception.   A deception that is causing people to quit before they really have a chance to experience the depth of relationship that comes as we chose to walk through the years together putting love into action.  Marriages are ending because people are convinced that the Fairy Tale is still out there somewhere and that they just must have made a mistake in their choice.  How can we be so deceived?   How can we not understand that love goes deeper than a feeling.  How is it that we don't recognize a lie when we see it.  Why aren't people out there telling the truth.  There is nothing in God's word that describes love as a feeling...that's what TV and Soap Operas do, but God's word tells the truth about Love.  Love is Patient, kind, not proud, forgiving, bearing with one another etc.  It is inevitable that the feeling we have when a relationship is new is going to fade as we walk through the years together, but if we throw in the towel we miss out on something so much deeper and more precious.  The feelings are awesome and exciting, but they always come and go.  We can enjoy them while they are there, but build our foundation on something more sure.  And tell each other the truth as we struggle with shifting our belief from the Fairy Tale to the truth as God tells it.  I always wondered why no one told me about this before I got married.  And why did no one tell me that men really are from Mars, and that no matter how much you think you know each other before you get married, you really don't have a clue, or that no matter how good you think your relationship is, it will be challenged by money issues, family conflict, sexual hangups...excess baggage, unrealistic expectations etc...but those are topics we can discuss on another of the 27 days that are left in this little adventure that you're on with me.