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Love Is




As Valentine’s Day approaches, I’ve been thinking about how odd it is to put a day on the calendar reminding us to show our love to others. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE holidays, date nights and dressing up! I love celebrating the ones I love, thinking of thoughtful gifts and having a reason to jot down special words for them. I also truly believe celebrating each other, setting aside special times and even funds to share our love will encourage and fan the flames in our relationship, making it stronger over time.
Date night!
But here's what has me thinking this week… I hope I never need a calendar (or social media) reminder to “love” the ones closest to me. You know, the ones easy to overlook sometimes.
I hope to remember that every day is a chance to show love. It’s easy to act lovingly when we feel loved: 

  • when the sun is shining and skies are blue
  • when we’re by the ocean or in the mountains
  • when we’ve carved out time for each other
  • when we feel all the lovey feels
  • when we are not distracted by work, stress, kids or social media
  • when we’re dressed up fancy
  • when we're out on a date 
  • when there’s money in the bank to to pay the bills 
  • when there’s no tension between us, no dirty dishes in the sink or diapers to change
Life is perfect at the beach. 
But how many everyday moments are “perfect” like that? If only life was that easy, we would all be living a Disney-fairytale-kind-of-life. 
Loving one another in the day-to-day looks a little bit more like serving one another to me. 

  • starting the coffee or getting the kids’ breakfast so she can sleep longer 
  • clean-up the kitchen or making dinner for the fam
  • getting him a glass of water (or tea, wine, Coke...whatever floats your boat) 
  • starting a bath and swooping the kids away so she can relax and recharge
  • insisting he take some time away when you can tell he's hit a wall
  • a sweet note or text out of the blue
  • paying the bills...and working hard so bills can get paid
  • taking out the trash
  • picking up the messes
  • mowing the grass
  • watching chick flicks instead of war movies {or vice versa}
  • eating what sounds good to the other person for dinner
  • sharing the last bite of dessert {or let's be honest, giving it to me!}
  • serving them when they are sick
  • looking the other way at annoyances 
  • giving them space to grow and change
  • STAYING for better and for worse
It’s a hundred things - big and small - that add up to a lifetime of “I love yous”. It’s the commitment, no matter what. It’s sharing dreams and disappointments. It’s disagreeing and agreeing that it’s okay to have differences. It’s loving the other without trying to change them. It’s hard and it’s sometimes easy. It’s awesome and sometimes messy. It’s a choice and it’s worth choosing. 

I know what love does because I have the honor of being married to a man who lives it out.
Whether it's in the small or the big, he shows up and he loves me. Even when I'm unlovely, unorganized, unkind, or unfair. He's seen me at my best and at my worst, but his commitment is unconditional. He held my hair when I got sick and held our babies right after I gave birth. He dances with me and dates me. He loves me when I'm fancy and fixed up or without a shower for a week in a foreign land. He stands by me every Sunday at church and prays next to me each night. He laughs with me and cries with me. He takes my dreams seriously and my mistakes lightly.
My man, my hero.
That is what love does. And I want to love like this daily. I want to take advantage of cute holidays and be cheesy, romantic and lovey. I want to keep holding hands, dancing in the kitchen and embarrassing our kids with PDA. :) And I wanna hang out with you for my whole life! {He said this to me 17ish years ago...BEFORE T. Swift put it in song!}

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.
-Emily Bronte

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8

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