This year, we didn't anticipate exchanging gifts beyond our traditional heartfelt card. We've been blessed to FINALLY be able to have the opportunity to go out on inexpensive weekly dates (after 13 years of about a total of 10 dates!) and considered our weekly date our "celebration". However, a few days before V-day, I saw a new Willow Tree that I fell in love with and I had a 40% discount code that ACTUALLY applied (which is unusual). I broke our "no" gift rule because it meant so much to me.
YOU AND ME----Every day, Building on our Love
What touched me so profoundly was after I bought it, I read the artist's description of the piece.
"This sculpture represents a couple who’s navigating life together – the joys, the challenges, and the daily decisions that come with being a family. I hope it speaks to an appreciation for the little things that make life interesting... and how love can renew itself over and over again. It’s the trust and support of each other through the day in, day out that strengthens love – and keeps us in it for the long haul."
It's a description of us. It's describes our journey of focusing on "Stronger. Together." It represents the commitment of marriage (for those of us that believe fully in the covenant of marriage, not a "piece" of paper as the world seems to think it has become).
Marriage isn't always easy. We say or do things things that hurt each other. We my lose track of our priorities and cause our spouse to feel "invisible". Trust may be broken. Wounds may be hard to recover from. Every marriage has those issues if you've spent any time together TRULY living in partnership with each other.
Life gets in the way. Situations outside of us hurt us, causing our own hearts to break, which in turn affects our spouse. Our faith may waver and falter in a harsh world. Disappointments are plenty. Confusion and chaos are easy to enter in.
Yet, Love Remains when you are committed to one another. When you work HARD at compromise, forgiveness, and putting the other's needs ahead of your own at times...Love Grows. When you turn to God and let him lead your life together, clinging to Him during the storms and praising Him regardless of whether there is joy or pain...Love Builds.
It IS a daily requirement that you recommit to each other and put each other on top of your priority list. It IS a constant reminder of the need to be growing together spiritually. It IS about the LITTLE things. It IS about saying "I'm sorry" or "I forgive you". It IS about laughing together (even when you would rather be crying!).
I'm so thankful to have found my "forever love" and thankful for the support that he gives me. It is many, many times far from perfect....but because of the daily decision to be committed through the hard times and thankful during the GREAT times....it's a BEAUTIFUL LOVE.
And to think.....someone told me just before my wedding day that I'd never see our 2nd anniversary and that I wasn't "material" to be Suzy-Homemaker.
God knows best. For HE saw the "You and Me" and knew that we WOULD build our love, every day. For He already knew that our foundation was in Him and that HE would see us through each and every once of those hard times and the ones that are most assuredly to come. He knew would struggle and almost break, but He also KNEW that those times would build the foundation for the strength we have now. I could NEVER be more grateful for anything else in this world. EVEN on the hard days!
1 comment:
Tracye,
We do have a rare love. I do thank God for you and for how you unconditionally love me. When my plans fall apart, when my thoughts never get expressed, when I put up walls and hold things in, when my good intentions never make it past the "intention" part, you love me. You forgive me. You inspire me to open up. You are always by my side, always standing with me. A perfect picture of our lives together.
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