Beautiful Love

Weddings are kind of like funerals.  I know, that sounds horrifyingly morbid.  Please don’t be offended. I am a huge fan of weddings.  I dread funerals.  Weddings are occasions of joy, and that is something to be celebrated, for sure.  Funerals are celebrations of the person that lived, and that should not be trivialized.  Both events hold immense value.  In the meantime, hear me out.  Weddings ARE kind of like funerals.

Right off the bat, there are a number of similar effects that both weddings and funerals have on me.  Both make me cry.  Both make me want to hold my loved ones a little tighter.  Both lead me closer to the very rare occasion of wearing a dress.  

Look even closer.  At both weddings and funerals, the subjects of the event are the in the spot light for the day.  Each individual is referred to in the most flattering way possible.  Man, or woman, they are described as nearly perfect manifestations of humanity.  At the end of the day, the guests attending the event are often left with a lasting impression of the incredible person/people the main attractions are.

I’m not saying that these things are bad.  I appreciate and justify that each person deserves to be celebrated for their positive attributes without having their dirty laundry exposed for all to feed upon.  However, I do sometimes regret the negative effects that weddings can have on people, particularly us feminine counterparts.

Weddings can sometimes leave us girls with our head in the sand.  That sand may seem like warm, white sand of the Caribbean, but it’s still sand.  Weddings sometimes get us caught up in thinking that perfection in relationships really does exist.  They sometimes make us leave feeling defeated because our marriage doesn’t seem nearly as delightful as the couple of the hour.  Maybe even worse, weddings can brainwash us into believing that we can’t say “yes to the dress [or man]” until we’ve found ourselves in a relationship that can be deemed just as dreamy. 

Let’s not lose sight of the real truth.  We are wonderful.  But sometimes, we stink.  We can be nice.  But sometimes we’re rotten to each other.  Nobody is exempt from occasional nastiness.  Not me.  Not you.  Not any person on this planet.  Before you allow yourself to leave the next wedding over-estimating the perfection of their relationship and doubting the quality of yours, don’t lose sight of reality.  No love is perfect.  But imperfection can be beautiful too. 

Beautiful love is being well aware of the impending annoyances even an amazing spouse will bring and the incredible CHOICE it is to accept your spouse despite his many imperfections.  Beautiful love is being aware of the chunk of wood in your own eye before gauging your partner’s eye out by trying to remove his plank.  Beautiful love is fully accepting that even though relationships hurt at times, it IS possible to find contentment in imperfect love.

So girls, I encourage us to go to the next wedding with our eyes wide open.  Let's celebrate the beauty of relationship while being aware that the impression of perfection must be laid to rest.  May we find hope in the fact that imperfection can be beautiful too.  Let's stop searching for perfection and instead be determined to make beauty out of the imperfect. 

Cheers to that.