I've always dreamed of myself in a beautiful and romantic relationship.
Growing up with 5 sisters, my days were filled with princesses, tea parties and Jane Austin. I saw these beautiful courtships in Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility that set the bar of what I wanted when I was of age to date and marry.
Then I got back from my mission, and became "of age".
I realized soon afterwords that I wanted a beautiful relationship, but I also wanted an easy one, I wanted it to just fall in my lap and that within a few weeks or months I would have re-written my own Jane Austin story; I being Mr. Knightly, of course.
What I've learned, the hard way, is that beauty doesn't come with ease.
An easy, love-at-first-sight, married-in-two-week relationship, rarely has the beauty and the depth of a relationship that has been fought for. Blood, tears and sweat are often the price for beauty.
The beauty of Pride and Prejudice is the forgiveness that Elizabeth painfully learns and the Humility that Darsey slowly learns. The Beauty of Emma is her great change of heart (which was painful and laborious). The Beauty of Jacob and Rachel from Genesis was in Jacob sacrificing 7 years, and then another 7 years to be able to call Rachel his own, "and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her". That is beauty. That is the cost.
The beauty in these stories came not because the relationship was easy; in fact it came because the relationship was hard--it was a purifying fire for both parties.
Today, in our modern, high-paced world, we're used to getting what we want, and getting it now. Too often we forget the value of patience, and the worth of sacrifice. We want relationships that fall into our laps and require the least amount of change possible. That's what happens to Tony Stark, why shouldn't it happen to me?
We've forgotten the price of beauty.
I've decided that I value beauty over easy, and that's changed how I see relationships. I won't look for the easiest path anymore; I'll seek the beautiful one.
