A Valentine’s Day Tribute

Chris and I have never been much for Valentine smooches and the necessity of lover-gifts on February 14^th (not that I don’t love V-Day…though I love it in the sense of wearing red and making homemade cards and heart cookies with pink sprinkles with my kid…not fancy dates and glitter balloons).  However, it is a day for love and, so, I feel the need to give my husband the honor he deserves on this Shiny-Red-Sweet-Day.

In his honor, what almost seven years of marriage to Christopher Hohorst has taught me about life:

• There are lots of brains in the world that are not like mine. I’m grateful grateful grateful to have found and loved his.

• Saying the Peace at church is the best time of all to apologize for marriage failures. We get better at that every week.

• Naps are a beautiful thing and are never to be begrudged by one’s spouse, especially when you share a kid.

• When we make a lovely meal (how wonderful is a sliced onion?) or sip a good wine, we worship a God who creates beauty out of chaos.

• Appreciating good style or design or art or perfectly formed sentences is also making beauty out of chaos.

• My identity is not found in what I do or how I succeed but in the reality that I am God’s beloved.

• If we stop telling each other how funny/kind/smart/interesting/weird the other is, we will forget how.

• Said the Mr to me yesterday in the car on our way home from a weekend away with our church: “I’m realizing that when we’re not connecting or not treating each other with kindness, we’re living out something that’s not true about who God is making us to be.” That’s deep, right?

• If you marry a man with a good jaw, his handsomeness will extend into the days of gray…Can’t wait.

• If you want to know if your man will be a good father, notice how kind he is toward you.

• As I had the opportunity to appreciate again on this past Saturday afternoon, I love sitting in the sun with that man and letting him read to me (as long as he reads something I find interesting, ie not The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism).

• This is the most awesome/disturbing picture ever of my husband, part of me, and baby T-Rexy.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you! I hope you walk around all day with glitter stuck to your hands and a pocket full of empty, red chocolate wrappers…