Love... Imperfectly Perfect

I'm a Romantic at heart. I love Romance novels with action, suspense and lots of mushy parts all mixed into the pot together. It's the perfect mixture of ingredients for a dish that satisfies my Romanticism. I remember reading the novels as I was growing up and afterwards would try to picture who my husband would be and what it would be like. I had some great story lines, by the way. I would make a great writer ha-ha! However,  it wasn't until the year of 2010 that I realized that my love story would be so much better than anything I could up with from the imagination.

The one thing you have to realize about Love, is that it doesn't equal perfection and sometimes there is work involved in it. In the books I read, though I absolutely love them, it is more often than not completely unrealistic. Very rarely do I read one of my Romance books and find the delineation of "love" in the story actually matches reality. It's nice to read, but you shouldn't try and apply it to your own love and your own life.

I still love this picture!

I knew my husband a while before we ever even started dating. In fact, I was with his best friend a few years before he and I ever even contemplated getting together (awkward). Somehow, though, God forged a path, out of nothing it seemed like, that had our lives intertwining, and paved out a new beginning. Now, if you know me, you know that I'm a very indecisive person. I will "What If" something to death if I feel like the conclusion of it will somehow impact me negatively. I have the hardest time feeling "absolutely, one hundred percent SURE" on anything. However, with Wade (my husband), there was no question. It was very odd and most people may think I'm crazy, but I took his hand in one of our Rally services, when we were told to take the person's hand next to us and begin praying for them....(I just happened to be sitting beside him lol) and I felt such a love for this man whom I was only friends with at that time. Something told me then that this was the man I was going to marry. Sure enough, five months later we were engaged, and eleven months after that we were married. Now, almost a year later, I find that I'm even more in love with him.

Engagement photos!

Everyone will of course say, "oh, you two are still newly weds and BLAH BLAH BLAH". Yeah, yeah! I know we will have only been wed one year on November 5th, but having only been married a year doesn't mean we didn't have to experience the ups and downs of life as well. We've gotten mad at each other. We've had moments of trying to figure out how we would buy groceries or how we would make it to the next pay pay day. He doesn't wash his dish after using it, and I don't dry the bathroom counter off after washing my face. He has a way of doing things, and so do I. We have to compromise and, yes there are times we get on each others nerves. After all that, I can still say I love him.




Ober Gatlinburg, TN

I'm finding Love has nothing to do with "connection" and "chemistry", though I feel as if I have both with him. I've realized that love is about being able to fight and eventually make up. Love is about doing the dishes together and putting up clothes together. Love is about eating dinner together and cuddling up on the couch for a show we both enjoy. Love is about going through the toughies together, and still finding reason to smile. Love is about seeing each other at their absolute worst and still looking them in the eyes and telling them that you love them.

It was at that moment the other day, when I felt like I was at my absolute worst, that brought on the inspiration for this post. My eyes were puffy and my face splotchy. I'd cried the hardest I think that I've ever cried since he and I have been together. And somehow, he still looked me in the eyes, with his arms around me, and told me that he loved me.

He isn't perfect, and some days it bugs the crap out of me that he won't wash his dish after he messes it up, but I love him. I'm not perfect, and I know there are days where I'm sure he wants to put duct tape over my mouth about the dern dish he left in the sink, but he loves me. Love doesn't stay as easily as it comes. Love is working together, making a home and life TOGETHER. It's about having silly moments together, and laughing even in the hardest of times. It's about helping each other, loving each other despite the things that annoy you. Then of course, there is lots and lots of compromise that is involved. The point is... Love is what and how you make it. Our love story is different from the books I read, and that's okay, because I happen to like it a million times more because its ours and only one author could come up with all the right variables to somehow pave two unlikely paths to cross at just the right time.... Thank you Lord for the Godly husband you gave me!