This is Love.

Love is continuing to date a girl who will wear overalls.  On a date.

Love is cropping Fritz out of this picture and keeping it on my
bedside table for 13 years.

Even when we weren't dating.

Love is dating a girl who didn't know she needed to pluck her eyebrows.

Thursday is mine and Clay's fourth anniversary.  I know there are some people who read this blog who have celebrated many more years of marriage than we have, and maybe some people who read this blog who are not yet married.  I remember when we got married, Andy, Clay's youth pastor growing up, was giving the homily, and he said something that has resonated with me since that day.  He said (and I paraphrase), that the only thing that is sweeter than young love, is old love.  This gave us something to look forward to on our wedding day, when I truly did not think life could get any better than that moment.

When Clay proposed, he gave me a wooden box that he made for me.  Inside the box he had carved 1 John 4:10-12:

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us."

Clay, when we got married, I was absolutely convinced that the Lord created you to be a husband.  You protect me.  You pray with and for me.  You absolutely cover me with your love.  You are the man I dreamed of marrying, but never thought I would ever deserve.  And I know I don't deserve you apart from God's mercy.

But then we had George.  And now I know not only were you created to be a husband, because you are still unbelievable at that.  But you were equally created to be a dad.  So a few nights before our anniversary, I am sitting here thinking, 'Our life cannot possibly get any better than this moment right now.'  I know it can.  I know it will.  I know, because of the way you pursue me, and pursue George, that the love our little family experiences on a daily basis will grow deeper and richer.  

Thank you for the way you seek out a relationship daily with me, and with George.  Thank you that even when I am unloveable- which can happen often- you love me in that moment in a way that shows me more of Christ.  Clay, you are a man among men.  You lead our family in such a way that it has changed me from the inside out.

Happy Fourth Anniversary, Clay!  I love you so, so much.