Love Bears All Things

I wasn't going to do a blog post today.  Mainly because I never know what cheesy thing to actually say on holidays like this.  But as I've thought about my valentine--my husband, my friend--all I keep coming back to is Paul's first letter to the Corithians.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

I Corinthians 13:7

Things have not always been easy in our marriage.  In fact, we were in active marriage counseling when our twins were born early.  Our counseling sessions were abruptly stopped for obvious reasons, and about a year after surviving all of the trauma surrounding Shawn's death and Clayton's health, our counselor declared us graduates--heck, if we could make it through those stresses, surely we could handle the everyday stresses of marriage, right?  

I'd like to say life was a bowl of cherries from that point on, but of course it hasn't been.  The stress of having what we thought was our future ripped out from under us was a lot to bear.  But you know what?  Our love has endured.  More importantly, our commitment to each other in Christ carried us when we didn't exactly feel the love for each other.  This foundation in Christ bore the load for us when together we were almost crushed by life's circumstances.  

A lot of changes have been taking place over the last couple of years, especially in me personally.  It is with these changes that a deeper peace is beginning to evolve in our relationship.  In spite of it all, we have survived together.  We bear together, we believe together, we hope together, and we endure together.  

I love you, Brian, and I'm glad you're my valentine.