Love role models

We had more drama unfold yesterday with respect to our Christmas plans. There's nothing I can do about it, so I'm choosing to let it unfold how it will and trying to stay out of it. However, the drama got me thinking about marriage and relationships and how we learn to love.

I had good role models for relationships. They weren't perfect by any means, and as I became an adult I learned how imperfect they really were, but from my child and adolescent perspective I witnessed good examples of how to love and be in love. I learned about support, devotion, forgiveness, romance, sacrifice, laughter, affection, and commitment. I also learned the importance of partnerships and of continuing to date my husband after marriage. Most of all, I learned to never take love for granted  and to continually work on my relationship and my marriage.

I feel incredibly lucky that when the time was right for me to fall in love, I knew how to love and was capable of loving someone. I certainly wasn't perfect and I'm still not, but I knew how to open my heart to someone else, become vulnerable, and give myself to another person. I learned that from watching my parents and grandparents, and from being loved by my friends and my family.

Our most recent drama serves as a reminder to me that not everyone knows how to love unconditionally, and that being married for a long time doesn't always translate into being in love or knowing how to love. I hope that my husband and I can serve as love role models for our friends and family. Perhaps we can start with a couple who should've been role models for us.