Forever

  What does it mean to promise forever? It means different things to different people. The dictionary means unending and eternal. The reality is when we are promising that in real life to another person and we truly mean it then it becomes a commitment. Not just that you'll sit there next to someone until you die.
 
  It's a commitment to be what's needed. It means feeling safe and secure. It means never being alone. It also means work. It means you've made a promise to put forth the effort to be a part of something for as long as you can, not until it's inconvenient. It means that you promise to spend your life making every effort to do your part. It's an agreement between two people to always try your hardest.

  Sometimes it doesn't work out because of many reasons. Many times one of the people break their promise and either stop putting forth the effort or begin to take advantage of the other person and take for granted that they can do anything they want "because forever." It doesn't work that way. When two people promise forever it's a serious commitment and a promise to cherish. That's a word people tend to blow by or gloss over but it's one of the most important words in a promise of forever.

  It means to protect and care for lovingly, to adore. Its a big deal to promise to protect, care for, and adore in a loving and unending manner. Too many people are giving up too soon. Sometimes you need to get out, but if both people are committed to doing those things then most everything else will fall into place.
 
  If you keep your promise to protect each other then that means being selfless and thinking about how what you do is going to affect the other person. Keeping your promise to care for another isn't just when they're injured or sick, that's actually the easiest because that's what we've been taught to do. It means to care about them and they're emotional state. It means if their family needs something you help. It means foot rubs and back rubs after long days. It means drawing the occasional bath for them. It means doing a little something extra for them from time to time without expecting something in return.
 
  To adore someone is to give the utmost respect, esteem, and honor. Keeping that promise means to be absolutely proud to be with them. To show them that you are proud that they have chosen you. It means holding doors and hands. It means smiling at them in public. It means TELLING THEM that they are beautiful and intelligent human beings and SHOWING THEM that you mean it. That means not cursing at them. I hear way too many young men calling their ladies a bitch. That is unacceptable. No man should want to call a woman he loves that and no woman should let any man call her that. Even if from time to time you really want to call someone that, it's not how you treat the one you love. Honoring them means knowing what's right and wrong to do when they aren't around. When you are out in the world you are a representation of each other. How you act is reflected upon them. To honor them means not to act in a way that would make them not want to be standing beside you. All of these promises reside in that one little word "cherish." So promising to cherish someone forever is not something to take lightly, it's a serious commitment to spend the rest of your life thinking about that other person and how the things you say and do reflect on them.