Late Night Ponderings

The past few days have been great days. I was able to go pick up Nora from the airport last night. For those of you who don't know Nora, she is one of my very good friends from Southern Virginia University. I haven't seen her in 3 years...how crazy is that? She'll be staying with me until May 21st. It is a long time but she's super chill so I know it will be a blast.

I was also able to go to Bryce and Brianne's reception today. It was so beautiful! I can't believe she is married now. Pretty much all of the girls from our lunch group were there. McCall's brother was married today as well; their reception was in the same place! It was great to see the girls again. Ashley is married, Kellie is leaving on a mission, Brianne is married now, and everyone is moving on with their lives. I can't believe that high school was so long ago. When we were going through it it felt like it would never end.

There was something else that I realized today. As a girl, I know that I've always been excited to get married. Here in Utah as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we're told to get married. We see wedding pictures, see how happy or unhappy couples are, and we always long for it in many ways. We go to singles' ward and go on dates, date losers and date awesome guys that have no interest in us. Why? Because we believe in true love. Because we believe that marriage isn't something that lasts only a few years, but for time and all eternity and we long to be with that man (or woman depending on your gender) that God wants us to be with.

The reason I bring this up is because I know it will take a lot of very difficult work. I am very blessed to have found Riley, an incredible man who I absolutely adore. Luckily we are both very open and communicate very well, most of the time. There are times where both of us have difficulty expressing what we need or want to say. It's a lot of work. We've been talking about a lot of different things recently and I realized that this is going to be tough! I feel that we're both good people and doing our best but we're very different people and we're human. Compromising, communicating, and keeping the love and adoration growing and constant will be tough. It will take faith. It will stretch us and there will be days and nights where we're both grumpy and have to try very hard to suck up our pride.

But the fact is that I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. On February 4th I agreed to be sealed to Riley for time and all eternity. I agreed because I knew that Riley was the best man for me, I knew that that was who the Lord wanted me to be with forever...and it's who I want to be with forever.

I can not adequately express in writing or speaking the deep love and adoration I have for this wonderful man. I also can not adequately express the stress that comes in finding someone and trying to plan and understand what eternity will be like with them. But Heavenly Father is going to be with us every single step of the way. He will help us through our struggles. He will be able to help me see past myself, and he is teaching me how to love someone in a way that I have never experienced before. For this, I am incredibly grateful.

Have a wonderful night.