"I love my wife."

I can’t remember what for, probably our anniversary, but my wife got me a brown t-shirt. Embroidered on this shirt, in off-white stitching, is the simple declaration: “I love my wife.”

I wear the shirt in regular rotation with the rest of my clothes. Since I don’t have many, that means I wear it a lot. As you can imagine, a shirt like that garners many types of comments.

The woman usually say, “I need to get my husband one of those.” Then about half of those say, “Ah, but he’d never wear it.” I’m sure some of them are kidding, but sadly some of them probably aren’t.

Men typically respond to the shirt with, “What’d you do to have to wear that?” or “Someone’s in trouble.” While I do have my fair share of run-ins with the Law (i.e. the Wifey), I don’t wear the shirt as some form of punishment or suck up. After I explain that to them, most men will ask, “Well, why are you wearing it then?” To which I respond, “Um…because I love my wife.”

In the LDS faith, marriage is eternal once a couple is sealed inside a holy temple. There is no “’til death do us part” since families are just reunited after they all leave this mortal life. I spoke to the LDS Missionairies 10 years before I joined the church. What they said must’ve stuck because for as long as I can remember, I thought of marriage as eternal.

I mention that part about the LDS aspect for a reason. This week, at the Adobe Community Summit, I had dinner with a group of male LDS techies. At dinner, we had to do round table introductions. I was third in line and after I was done, Rance Patterson pointed to my shirt and said, “He loves his wife too.” To which I said, “Yes, I do love my wife.” Rance introduced himself and ended with, “And I love my wife too.” The next person did his intro and again ended with, “I love my wife too.” The person before me, not wanting to be left out, also jumped in during the break. “Well, I love my wife too!”

Now, I have to admit, that was a first. A bunch of guys talking tech, taking a moment to let each other know that they love their wives. Call us a bunch of “saps”. Call us all “whooped”. Call us “Mormon freaks”. However, be sure to add, “but I guess they love their wives” at the end. 🙂

I’m glad to be part of a faith that not only teaches the importance of the eternal family, but also teaches men that it’s okay to publicly profess your love for your wife.

Next post, I’ll write about an excerpt from James E. Faust derived from this piece that he wrote. It was the feelings expressed by President Faust on marriage that convinced me this was the church for me.

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