Love, that 4 letter word that can mean so many things to so many different people. Like I love junk food, LOVE it! Doughnuts, cake, chocolate, ice cream....I could go on and on. I also love my husband and family, but in a total different sense of the word. The love I want to talk about is the lovey dovey love between a man and a woman. You know, the googly eyed kind? I often (maybe more than I should) joke with my husband about the way he treated me when we were dating, it's so different now than it was then. Why though? After 7 years of marriage we still love each other very much, so what has changed? I have even talked about this with several of my friends, who all have the same question, why can't we be in the -new and exciting, googly eyed, dating love- all the time?
"Love never gives up, cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, doesn't have a swelled head, doesn't force itself on others, isn't always "me first," doesn't fly off the handle, doesn't keep score of the sins of others, doesn't revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of the truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies." 1 Corinthians 13
No where in that verse, does it say, love never changes, because it does. Love is constant, but can be shone differently.
My hubs and I dated for 6 months before we got engaged, then 9 months later we were married. While we were dating, he brought me flowers EVERY month on the anniversary of the day he first asked me out. Anytime I would mention that I wanted something or liked something, he would immediately buy it for me. He took me on dates all the time. He held my hand or had his arm around me constantly. Now, 7 years later, I get flowers on the typical holidays, our anniversary and some times valentines day. He rarely buys me spontaneous things, we don't go on dates much and are not the cuddly couple we once were. I rarely get the "hey just thinking about you" texts any more either. Does that mean we love each other less? Absolutely not, our love has just changed, with our lives changing. We now have busy jobs and a family that keeps us on the go. Now he shows me he loves me in other ways. Like going to work for our family, he works long and hard too. He wrestles and plays with the boys. He brings me the birthday cake milkshake from Zaxby's (cause we all now that's the true sign of love). After so much change though, some things are still the same. I still look at him just the way I did on our wedding day, with the same amount, if not more, of love. Cause now, we have true love, I don't love him because he's "perfect in each and every way," no we are past that. I love him because I choose to. When I'm driving down the road, and he pops in my mind, I can't help but smile. Our marriage has not been perfect, we've had our ups and downs just like everyone else, but all that aside, he is still my other half, and I would choose him again. I said till death do us part, and I intend to keep it that way, no matter how many valleys we have to go through. I choose to love him, and I choose to get thru the bad and continue on to the better places. Our love has changed, and sometimes when I see people at church that (you can tell) are in an early stage of love, it makes me miss what we had years ago, but we have come so far in our relationship, that I don't need that type of love. Now I need a deeper love, a lasting and forever-I'm in it for the long haul- love. That my friends, is what I have :) Not a perfect marriage and life, but I have the man God designed for me. He isn't perfect, but I love him just like Christ loves me, when I'm not perfect. It's not always easy, but it's definitely always worth it. Chelsea
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