🎉Yesterday we celebrated our 15 year anniversary🎉
Since we started dating, over 20 years ago, the best gift Stephen has given me is loving me for me.
From the day we met, I never felt I needed to be anyone but myself with him...and he still liked me!
Stephen sees the good, bad, and ugly side of me and continues, to this day, to meet with me patience, kindness and humor. He is willing to say things I may not want to hear (but need to) and I know he has my best interest at heart.
We have ridden many waves together in our marriage, from my anxiety and depression to my cancer diagnosis, and its aftermath. He never fails to show up, listen, and hold my hand.
I share this with you today because this is love. And I haven’t always been the best giver of it to him. Ten years ago I thought about leaving for my own selfish reasons, but I chose to stay and live out love towards him too.
That choice transformed my heart and our marriage. What you see between Stephen and I today is because we have chosen to say yes to one another repeatedly on the hills, in the valleys and everywhere in between.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (below) is often read at weddings. It was read at ours. But rather than it being something simply said on our wedding day, it is now the foundation on which I choose to live out love towards my husband.
If you are in a relationship that needs renewing, I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
May we read the following words & allow them to be absorbed by our hearts. May we acknowledge there is truth in them...at the start of every relationship we live these truths out...but as time passes, we stray from them.
May we be intentional, & directional, & live these truths out to those beside us so our hearts & relationships will be transformed.
May we live out love💕🙏💕
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
With love and hope,
Shawn
