In my younger (single) days I believed love looked like a romantic comedy. My love would be captivated by me at first sight, would sweep me off my feet, bring me flowers, rub my feet and listen intently to all my stories. My love and I would never fight and would laugh at how petty our disagreements were (because, really, we didn't have any . . . )
At 35 I've been married for over 7 years and my view of love looks quite different from the Hollywood fantasy I was fed as young woman.
What love looks like to me these days:
Love looks like a husband taking a sick day to help with the kids because the 9mo old was regularly waking 2-3x/night and the 2.5yr old was regularly waking 1-2x/night leaving a tired Mommy curled up in the fetal position crying on the couch.
Love looks like a husband trading cars for the day to get the emissions test done on his lunch hour so that his wife didn't have to try to get it inspected while trying to wrangle a 2yr old and 4yr old in a glass cube with only about 4 square feet of floor space.
Love looks like a Daddy who tucks the kids into bed at night while Mommy collapses on the couch
Love looks like a husband who surprises his wife with tickets to a woman's conference she wanted to go to, but didn't think they could afford for her to attend
Love looks like a friend who drops everything, takes 3 days of vacation time, and drives several hundred miles across the desert to support a friend whose mom has just passed away
Love looks like a friend who drives over 60 miles round trip, with her two kids, to bring you your favorite Starbucks coffee and helps wrangle your kids and your nephew for an afternoon after your sister is in a car accident so you can clean house for family members who are arriving for your son's birthday party the same week.
Love looks like a nice home cooked meal and "date night in" so you don't have to find room in the budget to pay a baby-sitter and an expensive restaurant meal
Love looks like a freezer full of food made by friends so that you don't have to cook for the first few days after having a baby
Love looks like a perfect Man who paid a debt He did not owe for those who could never repay Him . . .
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him sall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" John 3:16,17
"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8
The love I've come to know won't make millions at the box office, but it's more romantic than anything Hollywood could ever dream up . . .
What does love look like to you?
To me, love looks like a man getting up for every single overnight feeding from birth to 21 months, even though he had to go back to work at 3 weeks and I didn't have to go back until 12 weeks.
ReplyDeleteLove looks like a man who, knowing his wife has had a horrific day at work, cooks dinner and wrangles the toddler to brush her teeth just to give his wife a couple of extra minutes of relaxation.
Love looks like a man tickling and rough-housing with his 2 year old and not thinking about all the other things in the world that need done because this is all he needs right now to be happy.
Beautiful, Heidi. :)
ReplyDeleteAmen, sister!
ReplyDelete