I Love Erica Lynne

Ephesians 5:25- "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it."
      We are commanded to love our wives as Christ loved the church.  How much love is that?  More than we can comprehend.  Christ loves every human that has ever lived, no matter how wicked.  However, I feel he must have an even "more perfect" love (if such is possible) for the church, which consists of those saints striving to obey the Lord.  This verse says that his love is demonstrated because Christ gave his life for us.  This sounds like an unimaginable love, but Joseph Smith taught that many saints are willing to lay down their lives for the gospel but are not willing to live for it.  The beauty with the Savior's love is that that is not the case, he not only died out of love but lived out of love.  This is demonstrated in 2 Nephi 26:24, "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life".  I love this verse, the first part really hits home as a husband.  "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world", or in my case this should read, "I doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of Erica".  I often ask myself if something I am doing will make Erica happy, unfortunately I know that there are many things that I do where that is not necessarily the case.  I need to strive to be more like the Savior who always had that as a prerequisite for any action.  The question is, how do I better follow his example?
        One lesson I learned on my mission, was the applicability and truthfulness of Ezekiel 36:26.  "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."  How many husbands naturally have a stony heart? We all need that new heart spoken of, and with that new heart we will be more capable to fully love our wife.  To gain that new heart, we must first love the Lord our God with all our heart, might, mind & spirit.  Then he can give us a new heart & a new spirit.  This is not enough though, you must continue to increase in love.  You should evaluate yourself with Alma's poignant question in Alma 5:26- "if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" 
       In summary, the key to loving your spouse as the Savior loves us is by turning your heart over to him, by living the gospel & continuously converting yourself.  Without that spiritual health your heart will be weakened and no longer be able to love to its full capacity.  This is why the first & great commandment is to love the Lord God & the second is to "love thy neighbor as thyself."  What greater neighbor is there than the one that will be at our side throughout all eternity?  Erica is my eternal neighbor.