So today Aaron & I are celebrating 7 years of marriage. Every year we take new portraits. As a photographer, I’m always behind the camera and rarely get my portrait taken – so it’s one way that I like to document my life. I’ve had so many talented photographers take our portraits and this year our team member Lora photographed us in our little town of Prosper. She is so amazing and talented and I’m just in love with our portraits!
So with 7 years of marriage behind us, I thought I would share some things I’ve learned about Love & Marriage.
1) Love is a decision – I’d heard this phrase and Aaron and I even talked about this concept back when we were dating in college. We had heard that the years would wear down the “honeymoon feelings” and that we would have to make a decision to love one another. We have stayed in the honeymoon period for the majority of our marriage but I would be lying if I said that it’s been an easy relationship. There have been many days we’ve both had to chose to love one another.
2) Forgiveness is a big part of love – Entrusting your heart to another person is a scary thing because we’re all flawed humans, trying to live life the best way we know how, but we all make mistakes. We all let our loved ones down and we let ourselves down sometimes. But this year The Lord has reminded me of His great and unconditional love for us despite all of our failings and shortcomings He loves and forgives us. I believe whole-heartedly that one reason God blessed us with marriage is to remind of His greater love and how we are to love one another. I believe that God is good, gracious and forgiving and as a follower of Christ, I believe that I too am to be gracious and forgiving.
3) Marriage is a journey – Aaron and I have known each other for almost 10 years. We were friends before we began dating. Friendship turned into attraction, then into affection and then love. Through our marriage we’ve been giddy, we’ve been dreamers, we’ve had struggles, and some days we’ve just been keeping our heads above water. There are seasons of passion, seasons of struggles and everything inbetween. But through it all The Lord has taught me lessons about His goodness and His blessings have come from nearness to Him through these ups and downs.
4) We are people who change, grow, struggle, thrive – I know that I’m not the same person I was in high school or college – life and its’ circumstances have shaped me and changed me. And while I’m still a fun-loving girl who would love nothing more than to fly kites, eat chocolate chip cookies and drink lemonade all day at a park, I am a wiser, different person who has lots of new hobbies, pleasures and ideas about life that I didn’t have years ago. And because of that my personality has changed a bit, my mannerisms have changed, and my opinions have changed on some things. And with that being said, my husband has also changed, grown, struggled and thrived – I want to rejoice in our growth and embrace his new strengths and the things that have shaped him. I would be wrong to think that it’s OK for me to change but not for him to change. We need to learn to celebrate our differences.
