A Higher Standard (Late 80s adult contemporary, power ballad) Muse: Steve Perry

There were afternoons of laughter, pages filled with kind repair, You patched the torn-up corners of my doubt with patient care. You never asked for drama, never staged a grand display, You taught me how devotion lives in ordinary day. I won’t be swayed by lesser things or gestures made for show, I’ve learned the worth of tender acts in ways the crowded don’t know. Because the cost of what I’ll take is measured by what’s real, And you set a higher standard that my heart was born to feel. It’s more than love I feel inside — a force that clears the air, A gentle, roaring certainty that holds me when I’m bare. Not a passing brightness or a sparkle in the night, But a truth that keeps me honest and a reason to stand right. It’s more than love I feel inside, a promise cast in light, A measure for the way I’ll live and what I’ll never hide. Let every careless promise tumble where it will, untrue, I’ll keep the lessons that you gave: be brave, be kind, be true. If the world comes calling out with lesser things to buy, I’ll answer with the memory of how you taught me why. It’s more than love I feel inside — a force that clears the air, A gentle, roaring certainty that holds me when I’m bare. Not a passing brightness or a sparkle in the night, But a truth that keeps me honest and a reason to stand right. It’s more than love I feel inside, a promise cast in light, A measure for the way I’ll live and what I’ll never hide. What I’ll never hide. More than love I feel inside.