Year One.

It’s hard to believe that we have already been married for an entire year. It has gone by in the blink of an eye, and I feel for the first time the weight of my Grandma’s words when she told me that it seems like just an instant and then you have been married to the love of your life for 50 years. My heart brims with joy because this is the love that lasts a life-time and I am only on year one. There are so many years to go, so many more memories to make.

One year of marriage. One year of growing together, of becoming us.

It has been beautiful. Chris and I have been best friends since the day we met in 2010. We just clicked. We have an easy kind of friendship, the kind that you just fall into and never want to leave. The kind that makes you stay up late all night talking and forget that you have an 8am class. The kind that you never forget.

It is one of the things that I am most thankful for, that we were best friends before we ever dated. It is something that allowed Chris to know the deepest, darkest, most awful, most embarrassing parts of my life- because we were best friends. When I fell in love with him, he had already heard the worst of the worst, seen me without makeup and in my PJs a million times, shared conversations about all of the pain of my past and all of the hopes of the future. He knew so much about me when we finally went on our first date. And it made it so precious to me, because there was nothing left to hide. There was no false pretense. No secret left hidden. No part of my heart left closed.

It is one of the number one things I would say to anyone who is interested in dating someone- be her friend first. Be his friend first. Get to know the person just for who they are, not because you want to date them, but just because they are worth knowing.

In our marriage, our friendship has been like a rock that we have stood upon. Each memory from the moment that we met has built upon the other and we are building a life together now, one that began with our first hello. When you say your wedding vows, you see that person for all that they have been and all that they will be. You see them for what they are, and for all of it, you love them.

Love changes. It is so strong on your wedding day that you think your heart might burst, but then somehow it grows even more as the days go on.

This year of marriage has given me such a passion to tell people about real love. There are many faces of love that the world tries to show us, and many of them leave us heartbroken and bitter. There were many times in my life that I cursed love. I saw it hurt too many people. I watched the way it hurt my parents. I heard the word love used so many times by people who didn’t really mean it. In highschool and college, I saw the way that young girls can be hurt and deceived all in the name of love. It was only through my walk with the Lord that I discovered what real love really was and how beautiful God’s plan for love really is.

Marriage has shown me the most beautiful part of God’s heart. Marriage was created to be a reflection of Christ’s love for the church. Not a religious, weird kind of love, but a real and passionate love. A love that is strong enough to be beaten for, worth enough to die for. A love that says no matter what, I forgive you. No matter what, you are worth it. A love that will never turn its back on you. This is God’s plan for marriage. For it to show us what Jesus showed us when He came and died for us. That we are worth it all. We are valuable and unique and special. We are beautiful, inside and out. We were created for love.

Every marriage and every relationship is different. Every journey has different ups and downs, different highs and lows. There is a different glimpse of beauty in each different relationship. Each couple has their own distinct and beautiful story.

This is my story, little snippets of things that I have learned about love during year one.

This year, marriage has taught me that love is watching the rain fall from the sky on your wedding day and running out of the back door to hold hands with your groom before the ceremony. It is closing your eyes and it is whispered prayers around the corner of the house, because every moment is precious. Love is looking in each others eyes and making promises that will last a life time. Love is him always eating the rest of my food because I can’t finish it all. Love is swinging upside down from the ziplines screaming our heads off together in Costa Rica. Love is  taking a mudbath together and getting histerical because the mud dries white and you cant even tell any difference on Chris. Love is staying up late and talking about the hard things, the heart things, the things that never were quite said before. Love is letting the tears fall because they are healing. Love is jumping on a plane and watching the world disappear beneath your feet. It is doing missions together and praying for the ones who need it the most. Love is living with your family after marriage and saying your last goodbyes together before moving so far away. It is standing hand in hand together on graduation day and knowing that you would have never seen this day without him. Love is the way he loves my family unconditionally. It is in the words spoken and prayers lifted up together. Love is finding out that you are going to be parents and holding each other, laughing and crying together as the sun rises. Love is moving thousands of miles from home with nothing but one suitcase and a couple of backpacks. Love is adventure. It is learning to live on another continent together. Love is laughing at each other when we mess up spanish words. It is staying put through an entire fight without walking away. It is caring enough to find the root of the problem. Love is giving a shoulder to cry on and a hand to hold. Love is knowing that you are never alone because you have each other. Love is starting a ministry together even when you have no idea what you are doing. Love is trusting God together. Love is being 9 months pregnant and going to get icecream together just because you are 9 months pregnant. Love is waiting for a baby to come and being so excited. Love is looking at who we are today and realizing that we have changed so much in a year but we only love each other more.

Love is beautiful. Love is hard. Love is challenging and it takes work. Love is hilarious. Love is making memories together.

But more than anything else, love is worth it.