I got to thinking about the power of True Love.  It really isn’t magic but when you see it, it looks and feels like magic.  My parents were a perfect example of True Love.

Ordinary, no – really don’t think so
Not a love this true
Common destiny – we were meant to be
Me and you

They didn’t marry until 12 years after high school, but my mom says she fell in love with him the minute she saw him.  Dad used to joke that he ran for 12 years and finally gave up – but he would say it with a special secret smile they gave one another when he said that.  The pix below are years apart (hers in 1944; his in 1966).

 

They were romantic, often breaking out in dances when my brother and I were growing up.  I loved watching my dad’s face when they were slow dancing and he dipped her.  There was never a doubt in my mind they were a romantic, madly in love couple even after (then) 55 years of marriage.  I thought all parents were like my parents.

Like a perfect scene – from a movie screen
We’re a dream come true
Suited perfectly – for eternity
Me and you

After both my parents died, I was going through their effects and discovered each had saved romantic cards they’d received from each other over the years.  What surprised me is that the best ones (and most) were given later in their marriage.  Their love truly did get better and stronger as time went by, as evidenced by the little notes they hand-wrote in or with a card.  I felt I was a Peeping Tom looking at something so intimate.

  

Contrary to all the negativity out there in the world, many couples are forever couples like my friends Pamela and Eric (above). They work very hard to keep the romance and intimacy protected in their relationship.  They learned the secret that, while it takes work to protect that intimacy, it is well worth it.

 

Some people even get married right out of high school like my friend Steph and her hubby Mike (above) and years later, are still madly in love and creating a wonderful life together. They learned to work through trials and loss, ups and downs, keeping the reminder that they are in this together, not apart.

  

Or like my son and his wife LeighAnn – after 9 years, together 4 years then married in 2010 in Vegas by Elvis thankyouverymuch.  They have so much fun together.  They play.  They laugh.  They fit like a hand and glove! They even took a work out and weight-loss challenge together and didn’t kill one another.  THAT’S true love.

Alpha Hubby and I made a solemn promise to one another right after we married.  We promised not to become roommates.  We promised to keep the honeymoon going.  We promised that we would never allow what we had to fade and become stale.  We are fierce in protecting our marriage.

Sometimes we have to slap our own faces and remind ourselves to put the other first, to keep that intimacy going, but it truly does just keep getting better and better.

Everyday I live – try my best to give
All I have to you
Thank the stars above – that we share this love
Me and you

Alpha Hubby is incredibly adept at romantic gestures.  He wants to stop and dance, all the time.  He loves dancing with me.  He is always giving of himself for and to me.  He has learned a Language of Love that blesses me to hear.  Even after 21 years of marriage, he is able to take my breath away by how he feels and what he says.

He truly loves me and everything he does is for me and for us.

The power of True Love is not just romantic gestures like sending flowers.  It is:

—constantly letting one another know “you are so loved.”
–It is believing in one another.
–It is getting caught bragging about each other.
–It is speaking words of life, positive words, over one another rather than pointing out each other’s faults, especially to other people.
–It is promising to fight fair and never dirty, mean and ugly.
–It is in seeing that person as valuable and precious to you.
–It is in keeping promises.
–It is in not taking each other for granted.

True Love is far too rare to waste.

Ordinary, no – really don’t think so
Just a precious few – ever make it last
Get as lucky as
Me and you

Life is about True Tove.  It means you put your love for one another first and putting yourselves ahead of everything else.  Then you arrange everything else around that precious love.  Everything else will work out from that point.

Never put anything else first ahead of each other – not children, not careers, not hobbies, not others, especially girlfriends or male buds.  The only thing more important than your love for one another is your love for God.

You must nurture True Love.  Learn that rule.  Then go forth and Enjoy It.

Baby, a few white hairs later, a lot of laughs, fun, joy, happiness, and True Love:

Every day I need you even more
And the nighttime too
There’s no way I could ever let you go
Even if I wanted to

And trust me, I don’t want to.  Ever.