DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
CHOOSING LOVE (Anniversary)



©NaimaLett.com Geno Loro Jr, Photographer

“I heard you wanted to meet me.”

That’s how we met.

We were freshmen at Howard University. Kevin’s roommate had invited me to the Mr. Band contest in the Fine Arts building and told me Kevin wanted to meet me. So, I walked up to Kevin and stated the obvious.

True story.

I tell the extended version in Confessions of a Hollywood Christian (It’s coming!), but you get the picture. We’ve known each other for a long time.

And 11 years ago, Memorial Day weekend, we said “I do.”
That’s when the adventures really started jumping off.

“Love is a choice,” our premarital counseling workbook said.

At the time, I was so young and in love that it could’ve said, “Love is cotton candy,” and I probably would’ve agreed. But after going ‘over the river and through the woods’ of life together, I now can say that I understand that statement and agree, “Love is a choice, not just a feeling.”

What do I mean?
Kevin and I choose to love each other.
We choose to sacrifice for one another.
We choose to do life together in marriage.
We choose to be faithful. It’s a choice.
We choose to trust, not lie or keep dark secrets. I personally can’t live like that. Open Book.

We choose to accept each other for who we are. Why try to change each other now?
We choose to care for each other when we’re sick, hospitalized, beat up from accidents, surgeries, you name it. It’s not always easy, but it’s a choice.
We choose to love when we have money and when we don’t.

We choose to like each other and work through our differences as quickly as we can.
We choose to forgive when we hurt each other. It’s a choice.
We choose to support each other, sometimes even when we don’t necessarily understand.
We choose to adapt with each other as we grow older and hopefully wiser.

We are not perfect. Our lives are not perfect. But each day, we choose to do another day together. It really is that simple.

I think the hard times we continually survive have helped us see life differently. You know? Life is not promised. God gave us more time together post-cancer. So we opt to maximize our time, live life fully and do it together.

We have seen the very best of each other and the absolute worst.
You know our story. If you don’t, see the I’ll Trust You blog/video.

The point is, when it’s all said and done, we make a choice.
We choose to love.

When Paul talks about marriage, He draws an analogy to how Christ loves the church.

EPHESIANS 5:21-33
The Message
21 Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another. 22-24 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands. 25-28 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage. 29-33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.

MYSTERY

Paul says it’s all a huge mystery.
Ain’t that the truth?!

But what’s clear is that Christ loves the church so much that He gave His life for us. That’s the picture of how a husband is to love his wife and a wife is to honor her husband. It’s a mutual giving of one another for each other.

We don’t always hit the mark, but we try.
And we do choose to love each other. That’s for sure.

And if I had to do it all over again, I’d put on my gown, tiara and train and walk down that aisle, again. We can probably still fit the same dress and tux, but I’m sure we look a little older. We have a little more life on us. My arms are probably not as chiseled as they were when I was working out every day. His hair seems curlier though. How does hair get curlier as we get older? Who knows?!

He can still pick me up off the ground when he hugs and lifts. I still feel safe in his arms. We still find reasons to laugh. Well, he laughs at me. I don’t know how I feel about that. Just kidding. We laugh at and with each other a lot. We just don’t take things too seriously around here. We do work hard, but we hang too. We enjoy this life. We have life and that abundantly.

Good times, bad, exciting, mundane… we choose to love.

How about you?
You choose to love somebody today?

Happy Memorial Day Weekend,
Naima

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