Love is a Verb

I took this picture of Bella the other day. She always sits beside me when I'm using my laptop. Don't you love all the toys on the floor in the background? That's pretty much our constant living room decor.

We started our small group discussion last night on "Staying in Love". We had a video from Andy Stanley that was done for small group discussions. It is broken up into 4 week parts and after each part, it asks different questions for us to think about and answer.

Last night's point was that love is not a noun, it is a verb, so if you want to stay in love, you have to do things to love your spouse. Pretty simple, huh? It's not about how you feel, it's about both of you making each other first and doing things out of love for one another.

It was fun and funny to hear some thoughts on relationships from the other couples. I have a feeling I'm probably going to get on their nerves after awhile, because I barely said a word! I feel very fortunate that my parents were married for 36 years and that I did not live in a dysfunctional environment. Our first question was, who was the first person you fell in love with and why? Well, Morgan and I both said each other. We have been together since I was a freshman in college, in 1994. That's almost half of my life! I certainly wouldn't say that I was in love with my high school boyfriends!

Somehow, we ended up talking about making the bed. One of the men said that his wife gets mad at him if he doesn't make the bed and that one time when he was mad at her, he only made his side of the bed. I thought that was hilarious! Then, they asked us what we thought on the subject and we're like, um, yeah, we don't make our bed! LOL! I don't get what the point is, but that's just me.

There are so many things that I have learned to let go of, after being married and having kids. I used to be so crazy about how things had to be in their place and I would get stressed and aggravated if Morgan left things out, but I really have learned to just let it go. I remember back to growing up and I realized that my Mom didn't keep our house perfect, and there is some wisdom that she shared with me that I will never forget. She said that you don't want to keep your house so perfect that it doesn't feel lived in, where people come over and are afraid to touch anything as if it's a museum. Your house is supposed to be your home and you want it to be warm and feel lived in and for people to feel comfortable. I totally agree with her on that!

I suppose some could argue that I've become a little too relaxed, but I've decided that just because I stay home, does not mean I want my job title to be "cleaning lady 24/7". Sure, I dust and vacuum and keep the bathrooms clean and do the dishes and laundry, but at any given time, you will see laundry that needs to be put up, some dishes in the sink, toys on the floor and I'm perfectly fine with that. When I worked full time, things were easier because there wasn't always people home to mess everything up. I just don't want to spend hours every day making this house look perfect when it's just going to end up looking the same exact way by the next morning. Does anyone else feel this way? LOL!

I got off on a tangent there, but the small group does seem like it will be fun.

Currently, I'm reading the follow-up book to "Same Kind of Different as Me" and it's called "What Difference Do it Make?" I cannot say enough about the first book. It's one of those books that if I had the money, I would buy a copy for every one of you and make sure that you read it! It has changed my perspective on so many things, especially the way I view the homeless and the fact that one person really can make a difference!