Just take a wild, freaking guess.
Marriage.
My holy heavens. Prior to the last two weeks I would have groaned and rolled my eyes the entire time. It's one thing to talk about love or chastity or children but marriage itself is one lesson that I've never been a fan of. But even despite the weird marrying mood I've been in lately and being crazy for Alex, I still cringed a little when he announced this topic. Every one else "aww"-ed. Single women at BYU, sheesh. And so it began.
He started by saying that all love stories are miracles {uh, right, sir. whatever you say} and the Bible has the three greatest love stories in familial succession. Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. They all shared... true.. love. {cue dramatic staring into the distance} How beautiful. Then he said, "These are all incredible love stories but before we get to them I want to tell you my favorite. My own."
Okay, okay, that was cute, gag-worthy, but cute, I'll give him that one, whatever. He amentioned that he goes to chick flicks with his wife because, "she likes chick flicks, I like her. I go to spend time with her." Ah, you must earn points with her all the time you clever man. Anywho, he told us the story of how he met his wife on a blind date, took her out ten times in two weeks, and then proposed. Sometimes I swear I hate Mormons and BYU Mormons just for this fact. Dude. That's disgusting. My gosh. Truly gag-worthy. Then he delved into the Bible stories and shut up about his own.
The first was of Abraham and Sarah. The point he mentioned was that marriage is not easy, she waited years and YEARS for a child. She was over ninety when she got knocked up! He said, "that requires patience" and Kenzi and I looked at each other as if to say, "yeah, not that they didn't enjoy trying." And then I whispered, "wait.. they were old.." Oh sickening.
Second story, their son, Isaac. Isaac was just gonna marry some hot chick where he lived but his daddy was all, "no, you need a good member of the church." And when they looked for her, lo and behold, Rebekah pops up at a well. The point stake president-y made with this one was that you need to marry a member. Which means you need to date members, as you marry who you date and blah blah. I am Mackenzie Treu, and I approve of this statement. That may seem hypocritical as I dated Tysen, a non-member, but it was high school. High school relationships go nowhere. Marriage was not an option in the slightest so I had no qualms about being with him. The thing I really took out of their story was this, Genesis 24:67,
"And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death."
He loved her! They were strangers at first but then they fell in love! For cute!!! It's also semi-worth mentioning that the wife helped comfort him when his mommy died. Wives should be there for their husbands. Apparently. Note taken.
Third story, my personal favorite, is that of Jacob and Rachel. He actually didn't talk about this one nearly at all but that's okay because I have plenty to say about it. Jacob's brother Esau married a Canaanite lady. *gaaaasp!!!* Isaac, Jacob's pop, warned him against doing the same and instructed him to find a worthy young lady {preferably hot too, because we all know that Isaac was quite the looker and wanted to preserve his fabulous genes with an attractive blood line, of course}. Again with the member of the church thing. So he goes to some extended family and meets... Rachel. Long story short he falls in love and has to work for her father for seven years before marrying her. Apparently he's seriously in love because seven years is A FREAKING LONG TIME. I thought two was bad. Seven is worse. And here's where it gets totes adorbs. Genesis 29:20,
"And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her."
I just teared up a little bit. MOST ROMANTIC LINE IN ALL OF THE SCRIPTURES GOSH DARN IT. He loved her so much that the seven years seemed like a few days. HE LOVED HER THAT MUCH!!!! Holy freakin precious I cannot get over that. Since I was thirteen and found that verse I have had it underlined with hearts all around it in my scriptures. Oh goodness it is too cute. I can't even express why that's so beautiful. It just is.
So, basically, my stake president talked about love and marriage and crap and I actually learned some valuable things from it. Have patience with love, marry a member, and marry some guy who loves you so much he would work and wait seven unbelievable freakin years for you, hopefully he doesn't have to though.
I may not be a huge fan of marriage, not yet at least, I am a huge fan of love. Huge. These love stories? As good as they come.
