Just because everyone needs a good love story for Valentine's day.
They met in a small town. A mutual friend introduced them and they started talking. She was quiet, he’s more outgoing. She could not figure out why he kept hanging around, he wondered if she liked him. Back and forth, back and forth. Their paths kept crossing (funny how that works), then they started dating (officially), and then they fell in love.
But he had a dream, and he took a job far away. She stayed behind to finish school and try to move on. He worked, many miles away, during the day and stayed up thinking at night. She studied, many miles away, during the day and cried herself to sleep at night. But her trust in God became stronger because of the distance and silence. And he listened to God and started thinking, “why did I leave her?”
One day she looked out her window and saw his dog in her yard.
She is his memory, when he forgets mentally postpones something. He is her steady when she has crazy ideas. He has never met a stranger, she hides from new people. She can speak in public, he gets nervous in a crowd. He loves cheese cake, and she loves chocolate. She orders online, he loves to go shop. He wants to travel and see new places, she would never leave home. She gives words, he gives time. He’s the computer guy, she writes everything on a piece of paper. She wants to plan everything, he wants to just go try it. He is the daredevil, she is the one that worries. She loves the beach, he wants the mountains. He drinks his coffee very black, she drinks it with lots of sugar and milk. Delightfully at odds with each other, it is a love that had to work.
They have both changed in the past (almost) 25 years. She still has green eyes, and he still has blue; she still has a beautiful smile, and he still loves to hug her. It is the other things that have changed. Her hands are worn with the care of running her home, but she still looks just as lovely to him. His blond hair is replaced with grey, but he is just as handsome to her. They are raising eight children, and learning just how weak they really are. Their date nights now consist of a trip to the grocery store, usually in the family van. But their faith is deeper and stronger now. And their love is fuller and richer, founded on Christ.
True love stories are not about the kind of love that we have been conditioned to think of. That’s the shallow, cheesy Hollywood love. This is a deep rooted, self sacrificing love. Their love has not always been easy, it has sometimes been really, really hard. But love is never about easy, it’s about hard. Life is not easy, love is not easy. They are two sinners, struggling to live together. That’s why their faith is stronger, they have had to reach for God that much more.
When you read the beginning of their love story it is romantic and sweet. But later on, when the story is full of struggles and heartache and bills to pay and losing babies and broken cars and raising kids, it is hard to see the romance and sweetness. But it is still there. And it is even more romantic and sweet, because they have poured 25 years of themselves into each other and their marriage. It is a real love story, the kind everyone wants to have. If you want to see true love, I suggest you look to your parents. It’s a great place to start.