Note sixof our 14 day series of love notes is to describe a life lesson you’ve learned from being with your partner.
Hello and welcome to our sixth prompt of our 14 Days of Romantic Love Notes series! I’ll be following the 14 love letter prompts (listed in their entirety at the bottom of this post) one prompt per day. Be sure to snag the free printable at the end of the post if you want to follow along!
Note 6: What is a life lesson you’ve learned from being with your partner?
There are so many ways I’ve changed since marrying Rich- I don’t go out to eat as much, I’ve become better with money, less vain, I have SO many more containers than I ever thought I would, etc.
I’m a better person than I was 10 years ago no doubt largely thanks to Rich.
But I think the biggest life lesson I’ve learned from being with Rich has to be unconditional love.
Awww. Cue hearts and butterflies and sappy music.
I’m still learning to be sure. I’m hoping to have a better grasp of unconditional love in 10, 20, 30+ years down the road. But since being with Rich, I’ve gained some important ground in learning both what unconditional love is and what it is not.
I’ve had to go through a lot of trial and error. Many times I’ve mistaken unconditional love for validation, being my constant cheerleader, allowing me to be my worst self while still expecting his validation and acceptance.
Additionally, I’ve mistaken my role in unconditionally loving Rich to mean I am in charge of Rich’s self-improvement (tough love style), which was basically just a sneaky form of conditional love and led me to focus on the negative instead of the positive.
But I’m learning slowly that unconditional love means just that- love without conditions. It means my love for Rich isn’t dependent on how often he does the dishes or compliments me or lets me sleep in. It means I don’t keep score on those things.
It means I provide my own acceptance and validation and CHOOSE to love Rich, not out of a need for him to fulfill me and my needs, but because I see goodness in him. Because I like to love him. Because I see him as infinitely worthy of spending my love on.
Rich is so good at so many things, but I really think he has a special talent for being a husband. Here are just a few ways Rich has taught me what unconditional love looks like:
- When I’m sad or hurt or in pain, he cares. Always. Even if my behavior has been less deserving of his sympathies.
- He listens to me and values my opinion.
- He does not speak badly of me behind my back (he’s actually really good about this in general).
- His love for me is not conditional on things he wishes I would do better.
As Dr. Schnarch says, marriage is the ultimate people-growing machine. Thanks for helping my machine to keep chugging along babe.
So there you go.
Ok your turn! What is a life lesson you’ve learned from being with your partner?
Remember, even thinking it in your mind can help fill your love tank. So even if you don’t write it out- think about it!
And if you want a designated space to write it out, fill out this form with “Romantic Love Notes” in the comment section and I’ll send a free PDF printable your way with all 14 prompts and space to respond on it 🙂
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Here’s what the PDF looks like (first page):
And here are the rest of the prompts:
See you tomorrow!