I, like many women realized one thing about me… I am a self-sabotaging sister. I am so used to dating losers or men that are whack or have whack tendencies/traits that I don’t know how to appreciate and accept the good guy standing in front of me. I’m always thinking what a loser.

I’m learning in my time of transition what love and relationships are supposed to be. Not that I’m in love, I’m just saying that I realized a lot of what I thought I knew about love was based on the premise that love was supposed to be painful. That love was supposed to hurt and be violent. That love was supposed to be difficult, controlling, insulting and just plain hard.

I’m not sure why I thought that. I mean my wedding ceremony incorporated the famous wedding verse:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NRSV)

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

But, I didn’t know what that verse truly meant. I mean I had survived dating and we had crossed over into marriage which I knew would be difficult, but I had to endure. We took vows. Pain could be temporary. I’ll just do better, try harder, pray more and be more vigilant. You see that?

I was blaming me.

I sat there and looked at it is my sole responsibility to fix the foolishness of my marriage. I accepted that it was my fault and I took vows and I need to be truthful to those vows. I mean it did say for better or worse. Worse can only be temporary right?

My wake-up call came when I started to realize this one fundamental fact…God’s love for me is not painful. It is ever-present. It is comforting. I realized that I wanted and needed that kind of love from a partner.

I want a patient love. I want a love that is easy-going and supportive. I want a love where we are not resentful of the successes we have. I want a love that will stand the test of time and be anointed by God.

I’m not in love. I’m just dating a great guy that it sometimes baffles me what he sees in my nerdy and neurotic self. It feels good to be courted in the traditional sense. No foolishness. No disrespect. Just good conversation and friendship. He’s a grown man. He’s a nice man and I am vowing to just accept that he’s a good guy who likes me for me.