Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood recorded this song in 2011. They have reprised this song on many occasions. It has received numerous awards. Why? This isn’t just Paisley’s song that he co-wrote with someone else. It is possibly your song. I know it is mine and my wife’s.

It has wide radio and internet play. The critics have a difficult time with it because they don’t think Underwood and Paisley have voices that work together. I am not talking about artistic production. I want to speak to you about the story the song tells and the number of couples it touches.

want you to understand why I have posted so many videos of these two for this column. They are not a couple. The passion that they have when onstage or behind microphones in the studio demonstrates their talents as entertainers. We believe they are a married couple that has lost the lust that we all had in our marriages when we started.

I am going to remind you. When you first started dating your spouse you were nervous and uncertain of whether this was the real thing or not. A few weeks or minutes later that feeling that some call love hit you. Like the couple Brad wrote about, you may have been told to get a room.

It may have been at school where your relationship began. If so, you probably know the phrase public display of affection. PDA is something that we still remind young people to avoid at church and school. Most of us want that feeling of uncontrollable passion again.

Your making out may have interfered with travel plans as it does in this story. In the early days of your marriage, getting to work on time might have been a problem. I remember those days. I also remember the afternoon I picked Cindy up at the bus station in Joplin, MO.

After two weeks of marriage, I had to go help open a new store. I drove our car and spent the week in a motel alone. On Friday she joined me. I needed to get back to work after taking her luggage to our room. There was also something else that we needed to do. It was one of the reasons we married.

In my mind, I changed the lyrics to “so on fire and so in lust, way back then we couldn’t get enough.” Was there a look in her or his eyes that you had not seen for a while? Remind them. Do not assume that they know that you still love them. Remind them.

What made you love this person that you married because of that love? Did you stop them just for a kiss? Was it flowers or love notes? Maybe it was the occasional surprise date that you have no time for now with work and kids. Don’t just fall into bed tonight. Intentionally take them in your arms and remind them of how much you love them.

In every marriage, there is one person who wants sex more often than the other. It is not always the male. I know some couples where the wife wants more passion in the marriage. I often speak of love languages. If you do not know his or her language, how can they know that you love them? After all, love is a choice, and you may have changed your mind.

I teach that sex and love are not the same concept. These lyrics celebrate the passion of the marriage bed. We are also reminded that after one, five, ten, or fifty years the lust that made us want to love each other is gone. Remind me.

©Copyright 2023 by Charles Kensinger