Fruit of the spirit: love

by Ann Knodel

Once a upon a time, a knight was walking around his new surroundings and found a damsel in distress. He listened to her and won her admiration. Kurt found me at the NDSU bookstore staring at the empty shelf that should have contained our textbook. He listened to me chatter for 40 minutes. We had one class together, and after a couple of months of chatting in class, Kurt asked me to the school play. We couldn’t get tickets by then, so we started our life-long dating habit of going for long walks. (Kurt likes to call me his cheap date.)

Kurt was my knight in shining armor. At college I was scared, nervous, and worried about everything. Kurt made things seem easy, and I was braver with him. I admired his strong hands and warm, brown eyes when we first met. After a couple of months of admiration on my part, we became best friends, which moved quickly to romantic love. We were married after our Sophomore year of college. Since we shared a major and took classes together, we started married life being together 24/7.

It was Kurt who helped me realized I had only religion and not a saving faith in Jesus. I started married life with Kurt on the pedestal that only God should have been on. God and Kurt were both patient as I learned to switch their places. Over the years, I saw how the more I loved God and followed Him, the deeper my love for Kurt grew.

Romantic love needs to transform into committed love in order to last the stresses of life. Lasting love requires work by both of you. Is your marriage worth putting aside yourself for your spouse? Are you willing to spend time with your spouse more than other people? Kurt found a great quote about marriage: Marriage is a lifelong commitment to loving companionship. We think this is a great definition of what marriage should be. We have been putting this more and more into practice, and it has been well worth the investment! There is no other person I want to spend time with more than Kurt. I learned projection at church, so I could spend more time with him at church when Kurt is running the sound booth. I choose to do extra work around the house when Kurt is at work, so we can do something fun together when he is home. I will sit in the same room as him even if we are doing different things. As we have gotten older, that Kurt still calls me his babe or beautiful brunette, is priceless. He still melts me with the way he looks at me.

After 41 years of adventure, the damsel’s dress is muddy and torn, the knight’s armor is rusty and dented, but they are still happily holding hands ready to face their next adventure together.

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Ann Knodel is married to Calvary board member Kurt Knodel. The mother of two and grandmother of three, she enjoys spending time with her family, long hikes and dark chocolate. You can usually find her volunteering at either Schaeffer Academy or Calvary.