this is forever

"looking forward to forever"

Joel and I on our engagement eight years ago

My honey and I celebrated seven years of marriage last weekend.  Life interrupted our anniversary plans and we ended up staying home sick with sick kids.  I made a grand attempt at a romantic meal of my husband's favorite pad thai.  It tasted like soggy wet rice noodles.  But he ate it and didn't say a word.  Wise man!  He's certainly learned a lot in seven years.  (smile)  I was the first one to mention how terrible it was and we shared a good laugh.  No use crying over wet noodles. We planned to watch a movie together after we put the kids to sleep, but Legend had other ideas and my poor man ended up falling asleep on the couch.  A couple years ago, I would have been hurt that he couldn't at least keep his eyes open for such an important day.  But four kids and seven years have taught me a lot about expectations! 

I have learned the one thing I can expect in life is that the unexpected really isn't so bad after all. 

So even though we didn't have a romantic rendezvous in tropical paradise, we enjoyed a day together at home with our favorite people.  I pulled out boxes of pictures and we reminisced about the day we met and how we've changed (or haven't).  We laughed at Joel's continuously evolving hairstyles and my tried and true.  We remembered how we fell in love... the sweet friendship...the love notes...the first date. 

And we were reminded that staying in love is just as beautiful as falling.

We fell in love, and because we've already fallen into it, it's not something we can fall out of.  We make a choice to stay, or we make the choice to climb out.  And sometimes we've climbed out before we ever realize we've taken the first step.  We may choose not to forgive...first step.   Or we can't overlook wrongs...second step.  We stop appreciating the little things...third step.  We lose respect...and we decide to walk the final steps away.  And we think the next time we fall in love it will be different.   But love doesn't change, we do.

And so often we change for the better when God's grace makes something beautiful out of our messy lives.  I can't withhold forgiveness when I've been given it so freely.  My baby forgave me for soggy wet rice noodles and I forgave him for falling asleep.  Such is the way of love.

Episode Seven:  The golden oldies

View last year's episode here.