marriage vs post modern love

what is marriage?
"Marriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found. Such a union may also be called matrimony, while the ceremony that marks its beginning is usually called a wedding. People marry for many reasons, most often including one or more of the following: legal, social, emotional, economical, spiritual, and religious. These might include arranged marriages, family obligations, the legal establishment of a nuclear family unit, the legal protection of children and public declaration of love." wikipedia

what is love?
"Love is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my wife"). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states. As an abstract concept, love usually refers to a deep, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual emotional closeness of familial and platonic love to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts." wikipedia

what is marriage?
a commitment. to love, to cherish, for better or for worse, sickness and in health. with or without feelings. why else would you declare such things at the altar in front of all your beloveds if love was supposed to be easy?
what is love?
is it feelings? is it i'll love you until i get tired of you?
or is it sacrifice?
i think along the way, we forgot what love and marriage really mean.
these days all we ever talk about is...gay marriages, divorces, prenuptials, trial separations, cohabitations, swingers, blah blah blah.
it makes me think... maybe they had it right from the beginning.
when two were wed and they loved because they just did.
regardless of wanting to, or being forced to, or whatnot.
we're so wrapped up in this society of post modern love
just pawns of recreational dating.
what has happened to our world?
all we ever talk about is love
everything we create is love inspired.
but we make our own rules, and we live our own ways
we eschew the laws of love and we turn to our selfish needs and wants
but what if we really only did what we felt?
like if i didn't feel like putting gas in my car
well, sooner or later my car would stop.
so how do we fuel the love in our lives?
like most things,
everything starts with me
surrender to the needs of others
for they say it is better to give than to receive
and truly,
not because it makes us "feel" good, but because it benefits another
we should live, breathe, talk, act as if my needs are not as important as someone else's.
and when one receives that love and care
would they not do the same for you or for another
and then there would be a chain reaction of love
over and over and the world over
then love wouldn't be a task or force
it would be a pleasure.
i suppose then it will be easier to make a commitment of life to another
and saying that you love someone would actually mean something.
i'd too like to love and be loved in the same selfless way.
everytime i read this passage it makes me say, what is this love?
"So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." genesis 29.20
he loved her so much, that he could have waited all those years. not 7, 14!
i wonder what kind of relationship they had
i don't think they bothered bickering about prenups or cohabitations or big weddings or where they were going to live or what they could bring to the table.
they simply loved
and they simply enjoyed one another's presence
and no doubt,
praised God for bringing them together in love.