Love in my marriage doesn’t look like what my teenage self imagined… You always hear that love grows with age, and it does, it just looks completely different then what the movies and books portray.

My younger self anticipated love to look like romantic dances in the kitchen to “our song,” sunset walks hand in hand, snuggling watching late night movies under our homemade blanket fort, eating candle lit dinners, the recreation of date idea lists and romantic crafts on Pinterest, etc…

But, in reality, love looks a lot more like romantic dances in the kitchen to Mary had a Little Lamb (true story), my husband coming home from work to watch baby J so I can go wander around Target with a Starbucks, at the end of the day resting my head on his spit up covered shoulder, him sacrificing sleep to care for our little one, him choosing to forgive when my grumpiness gets the best of me, choosing to spend precious time before bed in prayer, my husband picking up a pizza when I am too tired to cook or him not complaining at eating the burnt dinner I made when trying to multitask, etc…

Yes, love looks a whole lot different, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Love isn’t about the cute, fluffy, feel good moments, it’s about the choice to sacrifice and love in the mundane.

I am so thankful that love isn’t dependent on what the culture says it is, because that love is meaningless.

Real love is what Christ showed us when He chose to humble Himself, become a man, and die an awful death on the cross for our sins.

And real love is what I have the privilege of seeing every day as my husband chooses to be like Christ, to sacrifice his wants and needs to serve me.

Yes, the fluffy stuff may look good in the movies, but I would take the Mary had a Little Lamb, spit-up covered shoulder, pizza for dinner, sleep deprived kind of love over that any day.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.