true love

I usually don't watch tv.  I wasn't raised with tv and Travis and I decided before we were married that we would choose to not have cable tv.  The basis of our decision was two-fold: (a) a tempting waste of time that we both would like to spend elsewhere, and (b) we didn't want to usher in the junk that is incessantly shoved at us via commercials and unwanted sitcoms.  If possible, we'd love to have just a couple of channels that showed sports and maybe a few cooking shows, but as that's not possible, we stick with our small, boxy tv and the three local channels that it offers.

So, I usually don't watch tv.  As in, I never turn on the box.  But, the other night I flipped the remote around while bouncing Summer and saw that "The Pursuit of Happyness" was on.  Which I watched.  And subsequently, it led me to flip the switch the following night to see if we could catch another good movie.  The Oscars was playing, and for the first time in both our lives, Trav and I watched the Oscars, while playing a game on our living room floor.  We now have a list of movies that we'd like to see, considering we haven't been to a theater in approximately 27 years and we haven't rented a movie since October.

After watching around 4-5 hours of television this past weekend, I was again reminded of why I find most television so saddening: the relationships.  Most relationships on tv are sexual.  Well, sex is gushing out of every crevice of The Box, and sooner than you like to think, your mind grows numb and your senses dull to the fact.  The husband/wife relationship is rarely upheld and never reverenced.  It's no wonder that with the introduction of tv in the home, the number of divorces and affairs has risen exponentially.

While I don't mean to slam the tv for every social problem our country experiences, I do think it's a relevant point.  And while we may just gloss over the numerous sexual innuendoes and learn to watch half naked women entice men without blushing, while we may laugh at the way women belittle their husbands and respect a woman/man who defends her/himself before her/his family, it's not the way things were meant to be.

I watched this video today via Justin Taylor's blog.  Here's his premise to the clip:

In 1990 Robertson McQuilkin resigned his post as president of Columbia Bible College and Graduate School, in order to care for his beloved wife Muriel, who stopped recognizing him in 1993 and went to be with the Lord in 2003 at the age of 81.


Someone had a tape recorder at his resignation speech, and you can watch a portion of it below. May God make us men like this:




This is the way it was meant to be.  For a man and woman to so cleave to one another, whole-heartedly and devotedly.  And yet, I cry while listening to this.  Because I want to be like Mr. McQuilken, selfless and sacrificial, all the while viewing it as a pleasure to serve my husband.  I know it doesn't begin, though, when Trav and I are 87 years old and frail.  That selfless and sacrificial serving begins now... and I need some major work.  Let this be a reminder that the way the world shows us to treat our families/spouses isn't true.  This is true.  And this is true love.