Until Then...

I love you.

I really do.

And it's amazing the power that love can have on a person so willing to let love in.  I have learned what it means to love.  I'm not done learning, not even close, but my eyes have been opened to the wonderful experience and choice of loving another person, just the way they are.

The phrase "I love you" is often misinterpreted and misused.  I'm pretty sure the reason behind this misuse is the idea that people don't really understand what love is and what it means to actually love someone.

For some reference, here are some other ways to say "I love you"

-I am willing and CHOOSING to see your flaws and accept them.
-I know you are not perfect and that is okay
-I am making a conscious effort to put your happiness before my own.
-I will lay down my life for you if that was necessary.

These are just a few ways in which we can tell someone that we ACTUALLY love them.  Obviously certain people express and feel love in their own way, via the 6 love languages, but the concept is pretty much the same:  love is choosing to put someone else's happiness before your own, despite their evident flaws and sinful nature.

I have been able to learn what that feels like, and let me tell you, it ain't easy.

Loving someone just the way they are is HARD work.  It takes commitment, trust, and the ability to see past the flaws and see the good and the godly in that person.

I cannot wait to be loved that way and to spend the rest of my life with the man who does. But until then, and through that time, I will continue to find my Savior in every leaf I crunch beneath my feet, in every grain of sand underneath my fingernails, and in every sweet birdsong floating through the sky.