If Love Don’t Cost a Thing, Why Does It Carry a Price Tag?

“What’s true love?”  “Love is the soul’s recognition of it’s counterpart in another.” Those are the words of Owen Wilson from the movie “Wedding Crashers.” When we look at the state of the American family today, I think it is safe to say we are nowhere near what we once were. The fact that we lead all other nations in divorce rates and single family homes suggests we can even go further and say many of us don’t even have a clue of what we are supposed to be. The dating game has become a battle ground between men and women that has gotten so contested we have gone from not being able to get together and stay together, to now not even being able to “get together” anymore. What is the price of love?

In this materialistic society we live in, many of today’s men and women choose the people they want in their lives by looking at things that have nothing to do with who “we” are as people, but instead by “what we have.” With today’s so-called “Pastors/Motivational Speakers” constantly driving home messages to women in their audiences to basically “find yourself a sugar daddy” it’s no wonder the relationship gap between men and women is getting bigger. To give you a classic example of this I have provided a quote from “Dr” Jamal H. Bryant: “I often warn women who are contemplating marriage to marry someone who can take care of them. When a woman marries, it ought to be to someone who is capable of taking her to the next level. If she comes from poverty, there is no reason for her to get married and still be impoverished. The role of the man is to take her to another place.“ Really? And what place might that be? By making sure your credit is good enough to put yourself in debt for the next 30 years while trying to pay off a mortgage which by the time you are finished with it you will have paid 5 times what the initial investment cost you in the beginning? Is that the place you’re talking about? If you really want to be technical, the day you are honestly prepared to buy a house is the day you can cut out the middle man, go straight to the mortgage company and give them $500,000 for a house that costs $500,000. Not the day your credit score meets the banks requirements. Not only that, but you can also afford to purchase the land that the house is built on. America is in a RECESSION now for two reasons: 1. Because of greed from these financial institutions, 2. The American people buying into the system and using it as a means to live what we all have been taught to call the “American Dream.” These so called “Motivational Speakers” keep focusing on the material possessions of a man and teaching women to use them as a measuring stick to determine if he is a suitable soul mate when what they should be teaching women is how to measure the depth of a man’s character. Where is it guaranteed anywhere that a man who is “financially secure” will commit to marry, be a good husband, and a good father? Where is it guaranteed that he’ll honor his responsibilities to both his family and to his neighbors? What about his duty to live in harmony with the earth? These are things that can’t be determined by the size of a man’s pay check. They can however, be determined by his character as a human being.