Sometimes love looks like a photo taken on a flip phone from 2007, uploaded to Myspace. 

It looks like two young kids who fall in love at 18, get married young, have three children, and make an awful lot of mistakes along the way. 

Sometimes it looks like immaturity.
Sometimes it looks like bickering and fighting.
Sometimes it looks like unhealed habits.

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Sometimes it looks like late-night wake-up calls with a toddler and a baby under two. 
Sometimes it looks like praying through anxiety while expecting your third baby girl.

Sometimes it looks like exhaustion.

Sometimes it looks like holding your husband’s wedding band while he’s admitted into the ICU. Sometimes it looks like faith when you’re holding your breath. 

Sometimes it looks like rushing to the scene of your wife in a car accident. 
Sometimes it looks like picking up the pieces and learning from the lesson.

Sometimes it looks like holding each other while your child has an undiagnosed sudden illness. 
Sometimes it looks like praying through fear.

Sometimes it sounds like an emergency phone call because a loved one is taking their last breath. 
Sometimes it looks like grief and pain.

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Sometimes it looks like . . . 

Forgiveness.

Grace.

Sometimes it feels like loving like Jesus. Unconditionally.

Sometimes it looks like choosing to love each other all over again.

Sometimes it means truly keeping our vows. Through sickness and health. For richer or poorer.

Sometimes it means growing through life together. 

Our pastor told us before we got married that love is like a triangle. 

Christ at the top, and each of us on the sides. The only way to get closer to each other is to get closer to Christ. 

Because sometimes love doesn’t look like the beautiful photo posted on social media, sometimes it looks like a triangle. 

Originally published on the author’s Instagram page