the Sacrifice.

If you asked just about any woman on the face of the planet if she wants passion in her romantic relationships I am willing to bet that nearly all of them would say YES!  Who doesn't want passion in their relationship?  A passionless relationship sounds pretty darn boring to me.  We all want that fire in a relationship, the kind that lifts you up, gives you butterflies and ignites our souls.  What I've come to realize in the last few days is that you can't have passion without sacrifice.

There is a quote I love that goes something like this, "it is not moments of unleashed passion that prove our love, but the countless hours of commitment spent between."  Brilliant quote and I've never been able to track down who wrote it or said it, but I'd like to edit their words just a bit, "It is not moments of unleashed passion that prove our love but the countless hours of sacrifice and commitment spent between."  You simply can't have passion without sacrifice.  If relationships were all about passion then there would be no stopping people from being passionate with people with whom they are not in relationship with.  It takes sacrifice to reserve that passion for the one you are in a relationship with. 

For months in this blog I went on about how a MAN should be, the kind of characteristics he should have, the kind of leader he should be, so on and so forth.  Maybe I wrote it and maybe I didn't, but a real man will sacrifice his own desires for passion for the sake of protecting you and your heart.  I touched on this idea in just A Kiss, that we don't throw ourselves into the fire of love.  A man sees where that line is in your relationship where the passion becomes too much and starts leading the both of you down a road of no return, and if he is a man, a true man, he will sacrifice his desire (and probably yours as well) to keep you both from going down that road of no return.  He will choose sacrifice over passion, especially if you are not yet married.  The choice is never really an easy one to make, that road is far too tempting at times, but if the relationship is going to continue to grow it is a sacrifice that must be made.  Better yet, if he is the best kind of man out there he will daily choose to sacrifice that desire by not engaging in any kind of activity that even opens the door to the road of no return.  That door is opened by different things for different people in different relationships.  For some it means no kissing at all, for some it means nothing more than pecking, for others it means no making out.  The line is something that is determined together but that discussion, I believe, is prompted by sacrifice and by choosing sacrifice and guarding the other persons's heart over the desire for unleashed passion.  I'll say it again: you can't have passion without sacrifice.  Want to know how I know that?  I look at Him:

The Passion = The Sacrifice of His Life.  We are called to imitate Him in all things and so we find that we can't have passion without sacrifice.  The two are linked and bound up so tightly in each other that they simply cannot be separated.  There is no passion without sacrifice.  To love is to sacrifice for the good of another.  He showed us how.  The only thing that remains is for us to follow in His example.