The beginnings of a couple’s love story is always its sexiest. It’s intoxicating, heady, and oftentimes when we are face to face with it, we don’t know what to do. It can feel like a religion where faith is front and center.

 

But the middle is when the courtship and passion somehow tapers, and you are left with what makes you want to fix things and stick around even when it's already looking pretty grim: love.

 

I think of the middle as both the road and the destination. After a relationship falters, or even after death, to me we are still in the middle of a love story because true love doesn’t end when togetherness or life does. It knows no time nor space, and it lives on in the heart, at times in secret. I would like to quote the meaning of love from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8:

 

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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Love is self-sacrifice. When the bells and whistles fade, it is that Christ-like love that prevails. One described as above. The one that seems unattainable, but one we can trust because it stems from the One who first loved us, one who does not falter like shifting shadows--our God the Father.

 

Love stories are usually not about romance and finding, “the one.” It is powerful and heart wrenching in all its forms: 

 

The love that comes home to a spouse that you oftentimes you do not understand, but choose to be with. One that urges you to humble yourself even if your heart aches. A love that remains even if you are ugliest in form and in attitude. One that chooses to see the good, even in the worst of times. And those are, and will be, many because we are all human and make mistakes. 

​

The immeasurable love of a parent to a child--birthed or adopted--human or furry; or the love of a child to a parent that comes full circle and with a deeper understanding when or if he or she becomes the latter; 

 

The bond among siblings that sometimes gets stronger after their parents have gone;

 

The love of a friend that endures when loyalties are tested, or one that always feels like no time has passed even if years have come and gone between them;

 

The kind of love that comes from that painful self-examination as you try and grow into the no-bullshit version of you;

 

The nostalgia for a place that you keep coming back to, or the promise of it;

 

The sentimentality for something inanimate as a delicious dish, toy, or object that evokes the feeling. 

 

In the words of my best friend, “Anywhere love resides is a love story waiting to be celebrated.”

 

Love can hurt by design, but it makes life infinitely more beautiful and memorable. It can make us better or worse people, it can empower or damage, but it is always what helps us rebuild. It is what gets you to say to a loved one or to yourself that it’s all gonna be ok.

 

Maybe the stories here will provide you--especially in today's trying times--with a desire to either soldier on, pick yourself up, or begin writing or rewriting your own love story.

 

But most of all, it is my sincerest of hopes that you find the love that only our Lord God offers. Oh nothing too grand, it is only the one where He sent his only son to come in human form to a certain death in order to save us from all sins—past, present, and future. And all we need to do is ask--nothing more--because He loves us no matter what, because we are, and have always been His. 

 

That is the kind of love I pray for myself, my husband, my family, and for you and yours. I offer this site to you, Abba Father. Thank you for your love that never ceases to amaze me. Thank you for letting me borrow my husband and children for me to love and care for. My cup runneth over.

​

Welcome to the Middle of a Love Story.