Honest Love

I am not sure how it’s really suppose to look. This thing of marriage and life and loving “’til death do us part.” I just know that the everyday can be monotonous and routine and lacking in specialness.

The bills need to be paid and homework has to be done and dinner has to be made and laundry has taken over one. more. time. The bathroom needs repairs and the furniture’s worn and there’s not enough money for extras.

It just wears on you.

There are those times when you don’t feel loved and he doesn’t know how to make you feel what you want to feel. His work is draining and he’s trying to provide because that’s what a husband does for his family… he provides.

It’s in these times that I think that no one else is facing this life with me like he is.

No one else comes and unloads the dishwasher or carries up the last load of clothes or takes out the trash.

No one else was there when the doctor told us that our daughter would learn differently and need special help and no one else sat by my side in the NIC-U to make sure that she was ok.

No one else holds my hand on the way to church and every time we pray. No one else listens to my ideas (no matter how outrageous they are) and no one else lies beside me at night, every night, and says they love me before I fall asleep.

I guess, on the outside looking in, marriage can be boring. But how about love that goes deep? A love that endures the everyday and comes out on the other side? How about a love that does not compare itself or look to see what others might have, but one that is committed to life together? What about love that will argue one’s point, but remembers that they are on the same team and that ultimately the arguing makes a marriage stronger because you care enough to fight?

So many mistakes will be made and so much of life will be unfair. We come to a point where love is a choice and we decide that we will love even when it’s hard.

No life will ever be easy. God knew that. His idea of marriage as a covenant to be kept between a man, a woman and God Himself is more of a gift than any Valentine we will ever open. It’s love that endures and helps us to see the hand of God in this life, and to realize that honest love is the best kind of love.