What does selfless love look like?

What does true selfless love in marriage look like? Ian and Larissa give us a glimpse into just that.
They had been dating for almost a year when Ian suffered a traumatic brain injury. They weren't married yet, but Ian had been ring shopping prior to his accident. Larissa could have left Ian, and no one would have blamed her. Her love for Ian compelled her to do otherwise...
Stay encouraged and challenged in your marriage: fiercemarriage.com
Important note:
We don't own this video in any way. We posted it here for the Fierce Marriage community to enjoy and learn from. All copyright goes to Desiring God ministries as follows:
Original post: desiringgod.org...
A Citygate Films Production
Directed, produced, and written by Carolyn McCulley
Director of Photography: Michael Hartnett
Additional cameras: Shepherd Ahlers, Andrew Laparra
Location sound: Stefan Green
Production consultant: David Altrogge
Original Music by Roger Hooper
Edited by Suzanne Taylor
Additional editing: Stefan Green, Andrew Laparra
Sound mix and design by Dallas Taylor, CAS
Copyright 2011 Desiring God

[@rancherort]

What a brave and selfless women. God bless you for not turning your back and running.....

[@Burt472]

She is the type of Person who would truly deserve a Nobel Prize.

[@neechelle]

First inclination is to praise her for her selflessness and nobility. However, remember that this is a man she loves truly. She may not feel like she is doing a charitable or noble thing. When you love truly, walking away from them when they're hurt would be harder than staying. She is grateful that the man she loves is still alive and with her. She is brave. True love makes one brave. This is true love and courage, not pity or charity. Despite their hardships, they are more blessed than many, that they have such great love.

[@jennifereasterbrooks5270]

What a beautiful display of true commitment! I cried almost the entire video. Absolutely incredible! What a beautiful picture of Christ and the church His bride. We all need to remember that health issues of all sorts can pop up at anytime and commitment is so vital no matter what comes. Thank you SO much for sharing this video!

[@reichelberg24]

This is so amazing. I Love her and him... Her heart is one of a kind! Blessings to their marriage.

[@cathrinelotter5818]

so many times we pray for the perfect mate and perfect marriage and wedding and yet we forget the small things.. This truelly is selfless love, that Christlike love.. God bless them and may goodness and mercy follow them all the days and years of their lives and in their marriage.. im inspired

[@skierbrian1]

Amazing witness to the truth and reality of marriage. Thank you Ian and Larissa. This was an excellent example of Loyalty for my family lessons today.

[@nadiavandyk3777]

Sometimes God let situations cross our paths so we can learn the true meaning of certain things in life. And sometimes we are used to say that we love God no matter what and if we get tested we turn away from God. Only the true of heart will see heaven. You two are an inspiration of a marriage with God as the Center. I pray that you will be showered with blessings from God everyday. Seeing your husband talking and responding shows me that even though he had a massive brain injury, he is still a miracle given by God for being able to do things doctor's thought he would never be able to do. I wish you both the best.

[@set6081]

Gosh darn dust making me. Awe who am i kidding. That made me tear up!

[@JasonJonesArtCitySound]

Yes, yes, yes... What an inspirational insight into what true love really can be...

[@benton537]

True love is selfless, so grateful you shared your story.

[@nola4life50421]

Awesome story. Thank you for share this wonderful story with the world. GOD BLESS BOTH OF YOU!!!

[@carolpoluan8279]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful video. Yahushua bless you all.

[@Ndimemukomi]

Rare woman you are. God bless you.

[@SonofSean112]

Marriage is not about pleasure. It's about sacrifice.

[@Caderic]

Nah, it's about both!

[@ashleymitchell173]

This is very heartwarming and touching!

[@typar6431]

Beautiful story, thanks for sharing. I wish the best for you both. God bless the both of you

[@inmortal135]

What?! I'm not crying!!! I just had something in my eye!

[@DavidWilliamCarr]

Amazing. Praising God in the storms of life. Love like no other - thank you Jesus for your amazing love for us.

[@mariashaikh6039]

Amazing love!!!! True love is SOOOOO beautiful!!!

[@theresarathell4686]

puts life in perspective,what an inspiring couple!

[@paulevalentine7359]

THATS DIFFERENT

[@wilmalister8916]

Sobering video… appreciate each other while you have each other…. Regardless of the shortcomings each have. Until death us do part. 💕🙏🏻

[@deuceswild4657]

Awesome story had me in tears

[@rubity_]

Story is a real tearjerker but it's quite sad how they're praising something that shouldn't have allowed this anyway, don't you think? And I wonder, if people really do this selflessly or just cuz they're Xtian and that's what they should do to earn a spot in "heaven".

[@thehierophant1314]

But then again, even is she is doing this to earn a spot of heaven, that is still better than to go to hell

[@thehierophant1314]

And no, God sometimes allows this things to happen, sorry for the bad news but, if you don't see God in this, you are a fool. Only God can make a woman love someone like him as though he had no disability, if you knew God and knew his love, it would change you to a point where you will love even your enemies

[@MarDorrejo]

God is AWESOME

[@jaelynleveci256]

beautiful ... thats all I can say, just beautiful !!

[@candaceave-lallemant6998]

I hope you take the time and watch this video ... we are always trying to define love, to define our relationship with God .. we spend countless hours in our lives in pursue of defining these two things and then you stumble upon those that live both love and God .. When you look beyond the outer shell and the frailties of the human body and look deeply into the heart of those that love God profoundly, you see the striving human soul in perfection. Those without God are soulless, cannot feel true love and in them there is no hope. This is what our God calls the hopeless and the soulless, not because He condemns them but because they condemn themselves and they are the ones that create their own hell. God bless you all, may you find that God wonder of love, for He is an Awesome God!!

[@RANJO517]

My GOD Is An Awesome GOD!

[@flawlessvic]

Jesus is truly King. In Him, I am most satisfied.

[@maranathaourlordiscomingmi3508]

So beautiful...

[@meganbrown7149]

Amazing

[@alinthejungle]

What a wonderful woman. Worth nation

[@MsShay101]

Wow.

[@saintamerican6105]

She stuck around and let him still marry her, thats Christ like LOVE 🤍🙏

[@samlockard]

tissues!!

[@Nosferatu311]

This is truly a disturbing video. Why would she throw her life away like that? That's really messed up. At some point she will only be left with regret and resentment.

[@thehierophant1314]

That's because she has Go ! in her heart giving her the strength to love him and the desire to still love him. It's the same God that gave the Christian martyrs in Rome the desire to volunteer to be slaughtered by lions and gladiators with the other christians who refused to deny God, in fact some of them were singing and smiling while the lion tore them up. God is so simple like that, if you cannot see the subtleness of God in this video, then you have not seen God. God is love, and sometimes He lets bad situations like this to happen so other people can see God is real, and even though God made this happen, it does not mean that God did not equip her for it. God cannot five her a trial she cannot overcome, he gave her one that she has already overcome. She might not be able to see him in his perfect state, but there will be a time when he will see him forever in his perfect state, and that will be in beulah land

[@wesleyakeli3547]

😭😭😭

[@thebigspook]

God does not exist, but this girl loves this guy, even though she can and deserves a man that can actually be a man..tough life..gotta turn to something i guess

[@darkstalkerknight63]

this is a great story but did anyone notice how her preying did nothing. if god was real, god would not let her prey go unanswered like that. take the religion's parts out of this story and it is still beautiful that she love him that much.

[@darkstalkerknight63]

***** I can do that without a god. why did you said he. why your god can not be a she or both. that is not the kind of god anyone need. that is just called life

[@darkstalkerknight63]

***** that is not god. god is jealous. god is mean. god is hateful. good is an all knowing all seeing all powerful ass that does nothing when someone do something bad to someone good like rape who god is know all knowing, or all powerful, or all seeing. can not be all 3. god is selfish. god set up humans to fail from the start. god made hell for anyone who disagree with god. god is lies and darkness. god is a contradiction. god is fake. god is weak and powerless. yea that truth which is twisted by humans are everyone calls fundamentalist. they are people who actually think the bible i 100% right no matter what it said to go against what it said earlier a lot of time in the same book. no that is the people who actually believe in religions who does that. they are the ones who think they are better than everyone else. are you kidding me. do you know you just contradiction yourself all in one go. "They want to be their own God." no one want to be an very evil deify who is some how do not change but change all the time. "When this happens evil and violence often follows. God gave us all free will to accept or reject his love." god in the bible was a very evil and violence being to follow with all the killing, rape, mistreatment of woman, polygamy, wars, hateful, and slavery all justify by god. "God gave us all free will to accept or reject his love." of that is the case, it is not free will. you can accept god and be slaves to god will or reject god and burn for all eternity in a lake of lava and fire. so no free will for all time or be torture for all times. what a choice. "Life without God's love is an empty experience." life is very fulfilling without that kind of god. life is great when you live in today and take care of each other. "People who do not know God do not understand this. That is just called life." god is a pure evil and dark so is the bible. that go for all religions books and deifies. life is even better without the fear if an evil deify which over your shoulders all the time. everyone can do without that and if you can not, you have mental troubles.

[@darkstalkerknight63]

***** no thanks. I do not need the love of some evil deity who only love people because it want something out of it. love me and become my slave or do not love me and learn how to swing in a lake of lava. if you do not get it yet, I would take the learn how to swing in a lake of lava. at least than I still have free will

[@rancherort]

darkstalkerknight63 Lets pose this question. What did you feel when you watched this video? More importantly how did you feel? Was empathy one of those feelings? How about sadness or anger? This women chose religion to help her through and incredibly difficult time in her and her soon to be husbands life. She married him and like it or not 99% of marriages still involve one type or another of religion. Who are we to say if God loves us or whether he or she or it is kind, mean, evil, rotten, etc.. The feelings you have are your own and God in his wisdom or whatever you'd like to call it gave you the freedom and more importantly the self awareness to have those feelings without any recourse. Hell or heaven is something that our actions will bring us too. If your a kind and selfless individual God gave you that choice. If your a self centered egotistic type God gave you that choice too. If you have no remorse for hurting others with actions or words guess what God made that happen too. Real bible beaters say you have to follow the rules in the book but really its a book that a man wrote. Believing in something or someone or choosing to follow something is a choice its not engrained in us. Man was suppose to be created in God's likeness. That means that all the trials and tribulations you face are something that God faced too. Humans are the most intelligent animal on the planet earth yet we're the most helpless when were born. We do not possess great strength but can move mountains! We don't possess great speed but can travel near the speed of sound with ease! God whether you choose to believe in him or not gave us the one thing that set's us apart intelligence. Go ahead and tear this apart too. It wont hurt or bother me in the least. Really I'm interested in what you have to say.

[@darkstalkerknight63]

I felt it was a nice story but as soon as she started to talk about religion I knew where it was going. I know she would had still done it because good people do good thing and bad people do bad thing but it take religion for good people to do bad thing. yea I have some bad news for you. that "She married him and like it or not 99% of marriages still involve one type or another of religion." is actually wrong. first if you going on people getting matter in a religions places, it is actually about 60%. if you are talking about being religions after message it is down about 40%. they are slowly on a dclasse or decline if you are talking about the millennial which I am in, the numbers showing that more and more people the younger you go are actually leaving the religions. that is just in the USA but if you go the world them numbers are greatly lower in the people who are leaving and higher in the against religions. a report came out saying that 33% of people ages 18 to 35 is actually becoming religiously unaffiliated. for myself being I have not been religious affiliated since I was about 12 after I tried the read the bible and the dark and evil things it justify made me sick, I wonder what took them so long. every year and every decade and with generation learn that they can do without the reilgion and old believe and still be good people if not better than with it. www.bustle.com/articles/16616-many-millennials-leaving-religious-institutions-over-lgbt-issues-get-it-together-churches "Who are we to say if God loves us or whether he or she or it is kind, mean, evil, rotten, etc.." read the bible and you would see or better yet just look it up online. you would see a lot of evil and rotten things in the bible justified by a good. seeing as there is no proof that there is even a god in the first place and there if proof that if there is a god it is pure evil, I would say we have to say it. yes my feelings I have are my own but a god's wisdom is not as great as you assume. if you read the bible you would see all of this. the point of getting us "free will" is actually a downfall of a god's plan. a god's plan was for us to be 100% stupid and follow orders but willing free will mean gaining knowledge and knowing that all of that in the religions books are full of shit. "Hell or heaven is something that our actions will bring us too. If your a kind and selfless individual God gave you that choice. If your a self centered egotistic type God gave you that choice too." what a choice. be mindless slaves forever or burn in a lake of lava forever. if keeping my free will mean I have to be a a lake of lava forever, I will 100% take that every time. the people who are most caring, and give out the most help are actually atheist and the overall best countries to live in today are actually secular countries because the actually care for the people. "If you have no remorse for hurting others with actions or words guess what God made that happen too." well then you just took out about 90% if girls around 10 to 15 and about 50% of boys around 10 to 15 in the world. "Real bible beaters say you have to follow the rules in the book but really its a book that a man wrote." just like all religions books. they want people to follow them to keep people stupid. "Believing in something or someone or choosing to follow something is a choice its not engrained in us." ok I am wondering are you atheist too or would you call yourself just religiously unaffiliated. Man was suppose to be created in God's likeness.That means that all the trials and tribulations you face are something that God faced too." then the facts of evolution came around and say humans did not always look the same. our history is actually not like the lies in the religions books. "Humans are the most intelligent animal on the planet earth yet we're the most helpless when were born." all animals are that way and humans are no different. we are mammals after all. this is also why atheist is called the default religion because people are not born religions but we can be indoctrinated in one. "We do not possess great strength but can move mountains!" ha ha ha nice try. are you talking about physical or mental strength because you trying to use that against what you said earlier. if humans are the most intelligent animals on earth than we are mentally the strongest. if you mean we can mountains by using our words to remove the evil and dark ways of the old which is justify by the religions books, they we are the strongest. we have and possess great strength and call move mountains. if we put our minds to it, nothing can stop us. "We don't possess great speed but can travel near the speed of sound with ease!" again ha ha ha nice try. are you talking about physical or mental speed because you trying to use that against what you said earlier again. we made great technique, technical, and technology advances never before seeing or another about by the greats of the old. our knowledge and understand have grown 100 folds over. our minds are faster at understanding. our bodies are breaking records. right now we are working in space travel for everyone. Albert Einstein was one of the greatest mind but today he could not even compare to the minds of us. now if he was born in this time, his mind would be 100 times greater. "God whether you choose to believe in him or not gave us the one thing that set's us apart intelligence." a deity did not give us that, our minds evolve to understand greater rate. we change to survive and did that even more doing the hardest time. our body adapt to the changes in situation. we are here because we are fighters. "Go ahead and tear this apart too. It wont hurt or bother me in the least. Really I'm interested in what you have to say." you know I will because there are so much you have to learn and it will take you removing the religion when you start to find out it is what is holding you and us back. not to say that religion have not done any good but it became a detriment to the human race.