Love

I Absolutely Do

Amongst the frantic pace of this time of the year I’m taking a little time out to reflect on the last couple of decades. It was almost twenty years ago, in January 1992, that I met an incredibly beautiful woman. I don’t know that I believe in ‘love at first sight’ but I certainly believe in ‘overwhelming, all consuming, attraction at first sight’. That attraction was the beginning of the best thing that has ever happened to me.

On a hot December day back in 1992, I married an amazing lady.

Pauline and I met in the January of 1992 and were married on the 12th of December the same year. Once we got engaged, half way through the year, we couldn’t stand the thought of having to wait until ‘next year’ to be husband and wife, so we picked a date in the last month of the year and started planning.

I’m still hopelessly in love with Pauline and plan to stay that way for the rest of my days. I really can’t recall a day in the past nineteen years that I haven’t told Pauline that I love her. I guess there have been a few times when I’ve been travelling and we haven’t been able to talk but we’ve talked on the phone on most of those days.

It still amazes me that such an incredible lady would choose to spend her life with me. She’s clever, intelligent, funny, thoughtful, wise, remarkably beautiful and so much more. Words really can’t describe how I truly feel about Pauline and how I adore her.

On that day nineteen years ago I said ‘I do’ and today and every day I still do.

Happy 19th Anniversary to the most wonderful woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

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Can Love Last?

Jul 21st, 2011

by Rodney Olsen.

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In an age where we’re told that we shouldn’t hang around in a relationship if it’s no longer working for us, and that life time commitment is a concept from long ago, FamilyLife Australia co-founder Rex Campbell believes that love can last. He joined me in the studio this morning on 98.5 Sonshine FM.

You can listen to our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

I started by asking him why he thinks we have lost faith in long term love. We also talked about some of the practical steps we can take to ensure that our relationships can last the distance.

Do you have any advice on keeping love alive and making it last the distance?

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What is love?

Feb 14th, 2011

by Rodney Olsen.

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It’s Valentine’s Day and people around the world are celebrating their love for each other in a variety of ways …. but what is love?

The messages are confusing. Is it a deep sense of caring? Is it all about lust? Sex? Romantic feelings? Sacrifice for others? Is it emotional or even chemical? Is it a combination of some of these factors? All of them? None of them? What is love?

Even if you don’t consider yourself a religious person it’s worth looking at what Paul wrote about love around 2000 years ago. I reckon what he had to say still holds up pretty well when you’re trying to define a word that has attracted so many meanings over the years.

1 Corinthians 13

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (New Living Translation)

When I measure up the way I love others to those words I realise that I’m a million miles off the mark but it’s a wonderful standard and one worth striving for every day.

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I Still Do

Dec 12th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

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We have a very busy day planned for today.

We’ll start with church then on to a picnic, followed by a practice for Road to Bethlehem which starts tomorrow night.

After all that we’ll be back at church for a movie night.

Amongst all that busyness, I’m hoping we’ll still find plenty of time to remember a very significant event that happened 18 years ago today. On a hot December day back in 1992, I married an amazing lady.

I’m still hopelessly in love with Pauline and plan to stay that way for the rest of my days. It still boggles my mind that such an incredible lady would choose to spend her life with me. She’s clever, intelligent, funny, thoughtful, wise, remarkably beautiful and so much more.

Eighteen years later and my love continues to burn brightly for my incredible bride. On that day I said ‘I do’ and today and every day I still do.

Happy 18th Anniversary to the most wonderful woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

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Dead People Can’t Hear You

Sep 14th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

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Why is it that many people have to wait until they’re in a wooden box for others to say how they really feel about them?

You’ve probably been to funerals where family and friends talk in glowing terms of the person who has passed on and wondered if they knew how loved they were while they were still alive.

Sure, there are times when the person who has died bears no resemblance to the wonderful human being who is being described at the funeral service. Some people seem to have no redeeming features during their lifetime but suddenly develop a much kinder and more lovable disposition at the time of death. That’s not the kind of person I’m talking about here. I’m talking about good people who have done their best with the days that they’ve been given on this planet yet have gone to their grave never really knowing just how much they’ve meant to those close to them or how they’ve influenced those whose lives they’ve touched.

A Live Wake

Last week during the Simply Living segment on 98.5 Sonshine FM, Jill Bonanno and I talked about having a ‘live wake’ to express love and appreciation before someone passes away. You can hear our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

It wouldn’t need to be a morbid affair. The next time someone you love is celebrating a significant birthday you could perhaps invite friends and family to say a few words which would demonstrate how they feel. I’ve heard of people who’ve asked others to send stories and photos before a celebration so that they could put together a book of appreciation.

Who needs to know how you feel about them?

On a personal level, have you ever taken the time to send a note, a letter, or even an email to someone to tell them how much they mean to you? When was the last time you looked into someone’s eyes and told them you truly love them?

Saying something like, “They know how I feel”, is a copout. How can they really know if you haven’t told them? And if you haven’t told them in recent weeks don’t take it for granted that they still feel secure about their place in your heart.

How else can we show appreciation?

Can you think of other ways to ensure that those you care about know, really know, with every part of their being, that they are loved and appreciated?

Don’t let anyone you know die without knowing the impact they’ve made in your life. None of us know how much time we have left so don’t put it off. Tell someone today how important they are to you.

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