Love is like a 401k. I heard something like that as I was listening to a podcast. I was listening to Chip Ingram, so I’m not totally sure he said that verbatim, however, I started thinking along those lines anyway.
Love is like a 401k because a 401k allows you to have money that you earn taken out of your check and deposited into an account for the future…YOUR future. It’s for retirement, which may seem like a long time into the future but has a way of sneaking up on you.
Now don’t get me wrong, deciding to allow money to be taken from your paycheck isn’t an easy thing to do for a lot of people. The reason for that is obvious; the money you are putting away is for when you are old, many, MANY years into the future, but the problem? The problem is you need the money now.
Therein lies the rub.
Therein lies the likeness.
When you are in a relationship, especially a marriage, you are (in theory) making deposits into your relationship that you may not get the benefits from for years to come. Who knows, maybe never? But if you care about your future, and if you’re smart, really smart, you will discipline yourself to set aside the money to prepare for your future.
Likewise, if you’re smart, really, really smart, you will make those love deposits everyday, with the end result in mind, a future with a solid foundation in tack, knowing that you will have a partner for life, even when you’re old.
But what is a “love deposit”?
I heard this on 7th Heaven the other day (my daughter is having a 7th Heaven marathon!). “When you get married, you’re promising to take care of your partner for the rest of your life, to love them and to be there for them always.”
Well said.
That pretty much sums it up.
Unless it doesn’t…the average marriage lasts 3.5 years these days. Maybe the reason is they don’t get that love is like a 401k?
You keep making those deposits into your marriage regardless of how you feel, or whatever you spouse may or may not have done, whether they are making deposits, or even get that love is like a 401k.
Of course, this doesn’t mean if you are in an abusive, dysfunctional relationship you can even begin to treat your marriage like a 401k.
But if there is no crazy thinking, crazy acting, crazy stuff going on and you are in a healthy marriage, then it’s so important to see your marriage as a 401K.
Keep making those deposits.
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