There is a beautiful, heartwarming story going around Facebook about a woman who asked her husband to carry her down the stairs every day for a month before she would consent to a divorce. The man agreed, and in the process of spending these few minutes a day with his wife, he discovered a renewed love for her. It is a moving story, and if true, it is the story of a very wise woman who had an almost super-human ability to control her passions. Nonetheless, the story, when considered closely, in efffect supports the false idea that romantic feelings are necessary for a couple to stay married. What if the husband had found carrying his wife to be a daily chore uneased by the feelings of love that lighten every burden? Would he then have been justified in carrying out his plan for divorce?
Emotions are given too high a priority in almost every sphere of modern life. I have nothing agaist emotions, and I think past generations have sometimes given them less emphasis than they deserve. God intends us to have feelings and to enjoy them, and they most certainly have their place. Nonetheless, feelings should never be allowed to become our rule of faith and practice. Our feelings should be consulted and heavily weighed when we are deciding whom to marry (a matter which God has left open to our own choice), but they should not be consulted at all when we are determining whether or not to stay married. On that subject God has spoken, and His Word alone should be consulted.
