Just love

Chad & my one year anniversary is less than one week away. I can't believe it's been one year and at the same time I feel like we've been together forever.

Chad & I were laying in bed talking and he said, "I never thought I would feel so close to someone. We've only been married a year but I feel like I've known you for so much longer. I feel so close to you, you're my best friend." 

My heart melted.

Chad is great at being affectionate and expressing his love towards me. I on the other hand, have a harder time expressing my feelings. But in the almost 365 days of being married I have learned something that makes the biggest difference for me ... 

Just love.

In the middle stages of being married I found myself letting the differences of Chad and I get in the way of my loving him. I would look at our music, cold cereal, bed time differences and think, "we're just too different ..." then those thoughts would turn into feelings. Those feelings then got in the way of my love for him. 

After one particularly stressful week I came to a hard realization. All week I was pushing Chad away from me. Fighting against his love and not accepting the love he was trying to give to me. The entire week he just wanted to love me. Why was I letting our differences get in the way of my infinite love for Chad?

That night I made a goal for myself. No matter what happened I wouldn't let anything get in the way of my love for Chad, I was going to just love him. That has made a huge impact. Rather than pushing him away I bring him in closer. Rather than allowing our differences to be a problem, they now compliment each other. Rather than not actively waking up everyday and choosing to love Chad, I now actively love him.

Love is a choice, and from that choice comes the feeling. In my short amount of time of being married I have learned to just love Chad, and be active in my love towards him.

Thank you Chad for being the best example of choosing love every single day.