HOW TO WIN AND KEEP A WOMAN.

Let me try an earthly illustration. As a young man, I met this girl named Ellen and thought she was everything I ever wanted in my life. So I bought and read a book called How to Win and Keep a Woman. It said that four times a year I must buy her flowers. Once a week I must take her out on a date. I should call her at least once a day to touch base, and the book provided a rotating list of what to say to make her think that she was important to me. There was a chapter on techniques for romancing her, formulas for determining if she was happy enough, and what to do about it if she wasn’t, and advice on manners and listening techniques. I studied all those things—over one hundred ideas in all—and to this day I strive to follow the advice of the book How to Win and Keep a Woman. Of course, I don’t keep most of those things most days, and I constantly feel guilty because I’m not doing enough. But I try.

You may have guessed that there is no such book, How to Win and Keep a Woman. If I do any of the things that I do, it is so much better if those actions arise out of a heart of love rather than a list of do’s. There is no romance in following a list of rules. But there is joy in loving a woman to death. I am guided by love, not rules, and the actions arise from the relationship. So it is with the Holy Spirit.