So Very Thankful!

I have been reading some disturbing online articles and comments on such articles, that discuss marriage.
I can't remain silent a moment longer. I can see so clearly the mindset of most of my peers in regards to relationships and it truly makes me want to cry.
I think, if I were single, I would probably not care about these articles. Or worse yet, knowing who I was before I married the man who has changed me in so many ways, I probably would have looked down on them in some sort of self-righteousness that would befit a nun.
But I am not that girl. I have known the joy of being cared for in sickness and health. I have known the joy of looking in the eyes of the one man who knows me even better than I know myself and, inspite of that, knowing that I can trust him to be there with me until death seperates us.
It makes me want to weep for the many women who will never find a man so completely self-sacrificing and full of unconditional love. It makes me weep to think that they have not found something they can hold onto and invest in that will grow as they grow. I hurt for them that they do not have someone who will look at them when they are old and gray and see them as beautiful just because they are the one, the familiar friend, the beloved, the chosen bride.
I have found the greatest husband out there. As evidence I will offer this fact: I am typing this while listening to a recording on our computer of him singing for me the song, "When I Fall In Love". I think though, that the one thing which makes my husband so spectacular is that he is not original... meaning, he is imitating someone else. You see, my husband chooses to love me as Christ loved the church. He choses to sacrifice for me in ways I could NEVER deserve. He chooses to accept me, to forgive me, to cherish me at times when I could never expect him to. His sacrificial love for me makes me want to love him even more. It makes me want to live in a sacrificial way. And this is the whole point of marriage. It is all just a big flannelgraph. It is just an example of God's love for us. "We love Him (God) because He first loved us."
In a world where marriages, families, children, and life in general are disposable, I want to thank God for the beautiful gift of a marriage that includes a promise of "till death do us part" and for a man who is following in the footsteps of Christ.