Love And Honour Full Movie
Penny Bozic
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Growing up, there was something about her story that captivated me, something that resonated with me, something that left me so in awe and wonder of her story that I kept re-watching it every chance I could. She's frankly a BADASS!!! I remember watching and rewatching the story so much that our dvd copy got scratched from all the playing, and would freeze at certain points out of habit.
Mulan does what she thinks the right thing is, by refusing to get married, dressing up as man and going into battle on her father's behalf in order to save her country from invaders. All this she does without the consent of her family, something unimaginable for a woman in the era she lives in. Her journey is not an easy or linear one, but she still does it anyway.
As the story unfolds, we see her quickly realize that she may have bitten off way more than she can chew, but at every step of the way, she chooses to stand up for what she believes in. She shows up regardless of how terrified she is.
By the end of the movie, she has learnt to be an excellent warrior, built an extremely supportive community around her, and with the support of others stopped the invasion of her home country. This she does all while in disguise, a woman acting as a male soldier, scared that if the people around her know the truth, they will abandon her. But she shows up anyway, because at the end of the day, it really isn't about what other people think, but what she thinks the right thing to do is.
At every stage, at every crisis, at every moment of learning, Mulan chooses Love. Honour. Integrity. Even when she doesn't feel like it, when she doesn't see the point, when the way out is unimaginable, when she makes mistakes and has to learn from them, she continues to make that choice. Love. Honour. Integrity.
Love - Loving myself unconditionally, and from that space having a greater capacity to love not only the people in my life, but humanity as a whole. The desire to hold other's hearts and best interests as tenderly as I hold mine. Love
Honour - Honouring myself, my values, my history. Honouring the truth of what I think the right thing to do is, even when my voice shakes. Honouring the scary reality that life is complex, and sometimes I will be wrong, but still having the courage to show up anyway. Honour
Integrity - Living in Integrity with my truth, my desires, my lived experience. Having that sense of congruence between what my internal compass says and what my actions represent. Having the integrity to show up as my best possible self even when that might be too much or too little for others. Integrity
I remember the old marriage vows because when I was a child watching tv shows in many of the wedding scenes these vows were repeated. If it was a sitcom, there would usually be some type of funny scene, where the bride would object to saying "love, honor, and obey...."; the world's view of marriage was changing, and the media was used to direct us all to the 'new normal'.
The marriage vows have actually evolved over time, and the reasons for why these vows were said have also changed. In the beginning of the christian church, people were aware that marriage was a picture of the relationship between Jesus Christ and His church, we who are called, The Bride of Christ. Marriage vows and ceremonies were considered sacred because the relationship between a man and woman was to be an example of the sweet and close union between Jesus Christ and His followers.
The scriptures state that when christians marry, the man and the woman enter into a loving covenant with each other, which is binding until death. It is also a picture of the Blood Covenant between Jesus Christ and His Church, but this covenant goes beyond death, in fact it is a covenant that is everlasting! Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to give His life and His Blood to atone for our sins, and the only thing that He requires from us is to believe in Him, to Love, Honor, and Obey Him.......
It is truly an honor to know that the wedding covenant between a man and a woman points to the type of relationship that Jesus Christ has with His church; the wedding covenant is a way for God to show His children what type of relationship that He expects with us. It has been said that marriage is more helpful than harmful, to have a spouse, someone who has pledged to love you and cherish you, and to support you in your times of need. The Lord understood how hard life was going to be for us, and the wedding bond is an expression of sacrificial and selfless love.
It is sad to know that many marriages fall apart, and that christian marriages do not fare any better than secular ones. The Body of Christ has forgotten the wedding covenant is a sacred representation of Christ's love for us. When we become serious about this issue, when we are aware that this is something that God has ordained, and that it is a binding contract meant to last for a lifetime, then leaving when times are tough is out of the question, and we become willing to love each other with God's love.
Not only has the church forgotten how sacred and important marriage is to God, but they are unaware how they are to love each other in their marriage relationship. A man and a woman falls in love with each other, and they believe they are meant to be with each other, so the man proposes to the woman, and she accepts his ring and his proposal. They marry, and they believe that they have everything that they need to succeed in their marriage and in their lives together. It goes well for awhile, and then the issues of life pour in, and they begin to forget why they fell in love with each other in the first place, and not long after that, something major happens; they give up and divorce each other. What remains is anger, pain, and confusion because they don't know what went wrong.
The world does not have the best solution for a failed or failing marriage; God has always wanted His children to look to Him for all of their needs. He ordained marriage, but He also knew how hard it would be for a man and woman to keep that sacred bond if they do not allow Him to live in their hearts. Husband and wives should pray for each other, and encourage each other with the love of the Lord. They must allow the Holy Spirit to transform their hearts and minds, so that tenderness, compassion, and understanding becomes natural. What is missing in christian marriages is a surrender to the will, guidance, and love of God; we must go daily to Him for our daily bread, and for the strength to love ourselves and each other.
The Husband in the marriage vow represents Jesus Christ, that is why he is encouraged to love his wife with all of this heart, protect her and nuture her with selfless love, as a memorial to Christ's love for us. Jesus was willing to sacrifice everything, His heart and Blood to save us all, and that is the way a husband should feel toward His wife. The wife in the marriage represents the church, the Body of Christ, and she must love her husband with all of her heart, honor and respect him, and obey him. Obey means to be guided by him as God has made him the spiritual leader of the family and their household; we are not talking about obeying some tyrant dictator whom she must obey even has he uses and abuses her. This is leadership in love, as expressed by the word of God and as the Holy Spirit moves in the husband's heart.
Marriage was always to be considered a partnership between the man and the woman, just as there is a loving and perfect partnership and relationship between God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It is an equal partnership, but God is the head of this trinity, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit allow themselves to be led by Him. It does not diminish their power or authority to be led by Father God, and the Father would never assert His authority selfishly over them, because He loves them with all of His heart and soul.
That is how everyone should lead in whatever situation that they find themselves in, with love, compassion, and wisdom!
People no longer want a life lived in respect of external roles, duties or obligations, but turn to the unique experiences of selves-in-relation. Consumer capitalism, which trains us to expect the world to be fine-tuned to our expectations, has intensified a change already under way in modernity. To use words attributed to St Paul, we are increasing philautos, lovers of ourselves.
Under these conditions, churches and other religious institutions are bound to suffer. Too much of their life is given, immutable and inflexible. The good of the community comes before the good of the individual. There are given structures of authority, which must be obeyed. Gender roles are more closely defined than in the wider world. There's a moral order which must be conformed to. Consequently, the values of Christianity are those which subsume the good of the individual into the good of the community: endurance, patience, gentleness, service, humility and so on.
Some religious traditions have managed to negotiate the appetite for expressive individualism better than others, while remaining within the boundaries of historic orthodoxy but to put it bluntly, Christianity has not scratched the itch.
It is possible also to see the recent debate around gay marriage as a stand-off between those who have enthusiastically taken the subjective turn, and those who have not. The latter see marriage as something given, which is explicitly entered into, even something which is written into nature itself. For these, consisting of many from within the churches, it cannot be remade but only participated in. And we are not free to renegotiate the way in which we participate in it.
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