The Anti-Valentine's : Going Beyond One Day

Love drives 5 hours to get to you, just to follow you the 4 hour trip home in case your car breaks down    (which it does--3 hours from home).

Love, in turn, drives a car that might break down (again) so you can drive the more dependable one.

Loves listens to you as your heart is breaking, and holds you.

Love is proud of you when you accomplish something you didn't think you could do.

Love says, "You're beautiful," (and means it) when you've gained a bunch of weight and don't feel beautiful.

Love holds your hand and cheers you on when you're deep in the trenches of childbirth.

Love corrects and encourages you when you mess up.

Love cleans up vomit and holds your daughter's hair when she is sick because you. just. can't.

Love loves you in the mornings when you're grumpy, have crazy hair, and have bad breath.

Love protects you--even from the poor x-ray technician in the ER.

Love is brave on the outside, even when he is crumbling on the inside.

Love strips a major wound on your leg three times a day for two weeks because he doesn't want  anyone else to do it and cause more pain than is necessary--and then cries in the closet afterward because of the pain inflicted.

Love won't let you look at that wound on your leg for two months because he knows the sight of it will freak you out; it's that bad.

Love helps you go to the bathroom and bathes you when your leg is broken and you can't do it all by yourself.

Love cares for a nasty open wound for two months without complaining.

Love tells you the truth about yourself, but then loves you anyway.

Love learns to be patient with you when you develop a paralyzing fear of driving in the rain.

Love laughs with you past the point of your snorting.

Love (by himself) takes a kid to the ER in the middle of the night when the hives are so bad the kid looks like an alien.

Love encourages you in your faith.

Love values your opinion.

Love challenges you to become a better person, but loves you now.

Love gives you a break when your patience with the children is running thin.

Love still takes you on dates--even when it's take-out at home.

Love still surprises you.

Love works past the bumps in the road.

Love protects your heart.

Love puts God first.

"Love is patient and kind…Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

       ~1 Corinthians 13:4a, 7