In a Catholic wedding, the couple makes several vows, among them are that they are there "freely and without reservation to give [them]selves to each other," and to "honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives" and finally to "accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church."
What does it mean to "honor each other" though? Honor is to regard with great respect. I think more marriages would survive if more people worked on honoring their spouse instead of whatever their idea of "loving" is. In today's society, "love" is thrown around too much and too easily. People love certain foods or businesses or even celebrities and it's easy to take that mindset into a relationship. When that happens then love is just a trend. A tattoo today only to be lasered off tomorrow.
But to honor your spouse means to respect them. It means to treat them better than you would treat yourself. It means to want the best for the other person. It means sacrifice. It means to go that extra mile to express that love that you claim for them and doing what makes them happy, even if it is something that you may not want to do.
Honor your spouse by not treating them as a lesser person. Don't talk bad about them in the lunch room to your fellow workers. Treat them special.
I am very good at loving my wife. I'm not always good at honoring my wife. I get lazy. I get selfish. It's easy to love. It's not so easy to honor.
So, this Valentine's Day, don't limit yourself at just loving that person that you are spending the rest of your day with but work on honoring them too.
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