This past weekend, I was kicking it with some friends at a bonfire. We were several yards away from my car, and I had forgotten my camera tripod. I wasn't in a big need for it, and if I hadn't already gone back to snag more blankets, then I would have gone back for it. Two of my friends insisted that I send Levi back for it. I wouldn't have done that. I myself wouldn't have wanted to walk all the way back to my car through the sand, just for my tripod, so there's no way I would really want to send him back for it, either. They were very persistant that I should just send him back for it, because that's "what [they] would do!" They even started to chuckle at that very thought, til one of them said, "Maybe that's why I'm single"
I learned something 10 years ago that impressed me to my very core. I will always be grateful for Elder Howard's General Conference talk on Eternal Marriage:
If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently. You shield it and protect it. You never abuse it. You don’t expose it to the elements. You don’t make it common or ordinary. If it ever becomes tarnished, you lovingly polish it until it gleams like new. It becomes special because you have made it so, and it grows more beautiful and precious as time goes by.
While my friends were joking around, I just kept thinking, "I couldn't do that to my sweetheart". There's just so much goodness to Elder Howard's talk that I want for my own relationship and future marriage. I treasure my relationship with Levi and respect him as a human being, there's no way I would want to just treat him as my manservant or a lesser human being just because we're in a relationship. I think there's so much these two friends could learn from Elder Howard's talk. If only....
