It’s Valentine’s Day weekend. Also, Fifty Shades of Grey has sold-out in theaters across the nation.
You all know how I feel about this – I’ve written about it here on the blog and I penned a feature story for Life:Beautiful magazine last summer.
Romance is in the air. Well, if that’s what you want to call it.
I’ve fallen prey to the “I-wish-he-could-be-more-like-that” school of thought in the past. Well, not like the guy from Fifty Shades of Grey – I’m quite thankful Jason isn’t like that. I’m talking about the romance part.
When a friend’s husband leaves a rose on her windshield and I think, “Why couldn’t he do that?”
When a couple you know takes a secret trip planned by the husband without the wife’s knowledge of what they’re doing and I think “When is it my turn?”
When another friend’s husband plans a surprise birthday party to show she is loved and appreciated and I think “I wish he would do that.”
This, my friends, is the voice of comparison and comparison exists to steal, kill and destroy. Much like someone else who exists to do the same.
During this season of love, may I challenge us to think about romance a little differently?
Because you know what’s really romantic?
A man who plays silly, made-up games with his children called “Mommy” (don’t ask) and “Angry Horsey” (also, don’t ask.)
A man who speaks the truth in love and is far more calm, cool and collected than I am when it comes to parenting.
A man who works so hard to provide for his family that you can literally see the sweat on his brow and the exhaustion in his eyes when he walks through the door.
A man who plans a date because he misses time with just you. A man who unloads the dishwasher while you sleep-in on a Saturday morning. A man who coaches his boys’ soccer team. Who plays baseball with them in the front yard.
A man who watches Downton Abbey with you and shares microwave popcorn with cheese powder.
A man who showers grace over a very imperfect woman – and you do the same for him because it’s called marriage.
A man who fixes the cabinet that always comes unhinged. Or the rack in another cabinet that always falls down.
A man who gets a new towel for you because he knows you’ll want one the next time you shower.
Yes. Give me an ordinary, “boring” guy like this any day. This, sweet sisters, is uber-romantic because it’s happens in the real and true life we live every single day.
Sure, it’s true that women want to be romanced in the traditional sense now and then and I think it’s important that our husbands are aware of this – just like we need to be aware of their need for sex because that’s how they intimately connect with us.
But when we pepper love into the everyday mundane, we add salt to our relationships – and the purpose of salt is to enhance flavor.
We enhance the flavor of our relationships through the seemingly meaningless acts of love we show each day.
So if your man doesn’t buy you flowers or whisk you off to a romantic dinner, take heart. Put on a new pair of lenses and search for the romance you’ll see in the everyday.
I think you’ll be swept off your feet.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Sweet Friends . . . I would deliver a heart-shaped box of chocolates to each one of you if I could.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8
