Oof.

I think a lot of my posts are going to be somewhere along the lines of "Things April Walker Is Learning About Love."  I keep learning more and more; some things are quite obvious when you look back at them.  Here are three examples from the past 24 hours:

1. After Happily Ever After.  Oh, wait, what?  You mean something comes after the final kiss?  You don't just get engaged and some camera guy shouts, "Okay, that's a wrap!"?  Something detrimental that Disney movies has done to the minds of little girls is thinking that Prince Charming will come to take away all of your problems. And the thing about dating is, because the guy you are with puts his best foot forward to impress you, you think that this myth is true.  But the thing is, even though I am engaged, I am still insecure about my job searches, some of my friends still bother me the same way they always have, I still think my face looks funny, and even though I have a ring on my finger and the glass slipper fits, that does not mean we are rich enough to ride away in a pumpkin carriage. 

2. Love is sacrifice.  Like, you hear this all the time and you think you understand it.  It's not until you have a BIG disagreement that you start to understand what sacrifice means.  To many of you this will sound cliche.  Sacrifice is giving up something you really want even when you don't understand why you have to.  Sometimes you want to shake the person because you are obviously right and they are obviously confused.  But there comes a point in which you have to decide what is more important.  And as anyone close to me can tell you, I am always right.  So the fact that (after much argument) I can make an "unjust" sacrifice must be love.

3. God guides.  I don't really talk about faith issues much, because I'm not very good at putting things into words, but something that I've noticed about my relationship is that every time I have a question or concern about my relationship, it is made clear that I don't need to worry.  Let's say Nathan does something concerning... like... I don't know... an example from early on in our relationship is, "Will Nathan be too close minded, given that he was home schooled?"  That was a serious concern for me.  Shortly after thinking that, an unprovoked comment about open mindedness occurred.  This has happened at least 5 times.  God guides and shows you things that you needn't worry about. 

The thing about learning these things?  Not easy.  And I probably haven't even learned them yet.  At least recognition is a start.