We are in the third part of our eight-part series to determine if you are really ready for love. How do you rate so far? Most of us think we are ready for love, but fail to fully evaluate exactly what love demands of us. Because we are anxious to be in a relationship, because we want to have someone to love, we believe we are really ready for love. Not necessarily so.

Thankfully, there are markers we can use to measure our readiness for love. Our third criteria for love readiness is honoring and respecting the uniqueness in your mate. While this is similar to the last criterion, seeing your mate realistically, it is different in that we now must not only see our mate realistically, we must love and care for their unique qualities. We must practice the encouragement given us by the Apostle Paul to “bear with one another’s weaknesses.” (Colossians 3: 13)

Sadly, many meet someone and initially adore their unique qualities, and even weaknesses, only to later find those same qualities absolutely annoying. You know the routine: You meet a man and admire his reserve, his quiet strength. He reminds you of that trait in your father you so appreciated. As time goes on, however, his quietness bugs the tar out of you. Now you want to shake him to get him to talk. So much for the silent strength you initially found so appealing.

Men, how many of you were at first attracted to your mate’s spontaneity, only to later find her giddiness bothersome? How many of you liked the way she would spend money freely, especially on you, only to later see red at her readiness to drop a hundred dollar bill in no time for a pedicure and facial; or a new dress—actually, a hundred dollar bill wouldn’t buy a new dress, would it?

You get the point. Too often we forget what attracted us to our mates. Too often we delight in certain qualities at first, and later wish we could change them. When we tire of certain traits, wanting to change them, we spoil the relationship. Mature love demands that we appreciate and accept the uniqueness that made us attracted to them in the first place.

Stephanie came to see me for counseling several weeks ago. She is an attractive, thirty year old woman who has been seeing a man for nine months. Previously married, this is her first serious relationship since her divorce. Her boyfriend, Jerry, has been hinting that he is ready to consider marriage, but she says many of his idiosyncrasies bother her.

“It is nothing big,” she told me recently. “It is the way Jerry chews his food. It is the way he drives. It is the way he takes care of his apartment. At first I thought those things were cute, and I would tease him about them. Then, it seemed all of a sudden, those same things bugged me. I don’t know whether to talk to him about them or not.”

“Do you love him?” I asked. “Do you like spending time with him?”