We Broke the Mold (But not really)

Valentine's Day is coming up, and, well, if you know me you know that I've been thinking about it since the day after Christmas. It's what I do. It's who I am. I'm a gift giver, mostly in thought as the funds are completely as there as I'd like them to be, but I want to be a blessing to those in my life. I've even been looking for something for Bryton this year... something to bless his little one year old world. I may make him a socktopus, more to come on that later.
Anyway, back to Valentine's Day. For several reasons the two of us, Valentine's Day and I, have a love / hate relationship. One of the things I love about it, though, is the opportunity to reflect on mine and Aaron's marriage. It's the time of year that we think about "really" loving the person we're in love with. What? What do we do that? Why do we wait for one (or two if you count an anniversary) days out of the year to really express our love for one another? It really frustrates me from time to time. Sometimes when I feel like the romance is all dried up (because we know it all happens occasionally), I wonder why. And the reason is because we allow it to... which is bunk. We devote so much passion and zeal into other areas of our lives but get so complacent we ignore our greatest relational priority apart from God Himself. The "submit to your husbands" and "love your wife as Christ loves the church things," yeah, we tend to mess those up on an universal level, I'm pretty sure.
For Aaron and I, God overcame geography, age, careers, social norm, and other failed relationships specifically to see the result of the two of us becoming one. The challenges faced, both directly and indirectly for us to just "be" is amazing. Amidst all unique factors, the love God showed us prevailed in our own relationship. How do I overlook this? If I considered this daily, in our "ordinary" living, I'd appreciate and respect our relationship more. I'd see what God has brought us through to get us where we are, that though our relationship is something that must be 'worked' on and 'untangled' from time to time, it is a relationship worth cherishing and devoting my effort and affection towards. Every good and perfect gift is from God, and 1 John 4:19 says we love because He first loved us. Isn't that beautiful?
So, babe, I love you, and I appreciate and respect you as my husband and the head of our household. I believe, thoroughly, that God has ordained and orchestrated "us" into His story, and that is an amazing privilege I do not take for Granted.
-A