Happy Valentine’s Day!

For some of my clients, it’s your first Valentine’s as a married couple. For some, it’s your first Valentine’s as an engaged couple and you are eagerly planning your wedding and anticipating your big day. All so exciting and new! For others, you are like my husband and me, who are celebrating many years together. Whatever you are doing to celebrate your love for each other, I hope your day has been perfect!

My hubby and I are pretty practical when it comes to most holidays…especially this one. We don’t do cards. We don’t do flowers. We don’t do chocolate. What we do is time…because really, that’s what we need the most…Time together to have a really great date night. We get dressed up and go to one of our favorite local spots for drinks, dinner and conversation, uninterrupted by kids or devices.

Most days marriage is fun and easy and comfortable, but some days marriage is hard and it’s work. (For better or worse) But it’s also very much worth it. We have to say we are wrong. We have to say we are sorry. We have to forgive. We have to love purposefully and intentionally. And, we learn a little bit more each day, each week, each month and each year what that is supposed to look like. Without the Lord in the center of our marriage it might have crumbled already, like so many others have, but He’s the glue and we have to keep running to Him as the instruction manual on how to make this marriage thing work.

I’m so thankful for this cute boy I met 25 years ago in college at The University of Alabama. So thankful for his constant love, adoration and forgiveness. Also for the way he just “gets” me and my crazy whims. He gets that I have big dreams and little patience. He gets that I need my creative outlets and helps make that happen. He gets that I shake my leg when I get ancy. He gets that I need independence, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need him. He gets that I need exercise to avoid the grumpies. He gets that I go full force, full speed and then one day hit a wall and need to sleep for an entire day…

So on this Valentine’s Day, I’d like to give a shout out to my hubby Brad, my Valentine for 19 years and counting. Happy Valentine’s, Babe! I love you! “Grow old along with me…the best is yet to be.” — Robert Downing.