Guests chuckle at it when they come to our house for the first time, and then they get to hear the story behind it.
Tuesday, October 15 makes fifteen years of marriage, and this charming little piece in my kitchen is such a simple reminder of our beginning.
I look back now, and I’m so thankful for this man I married, who liked me for me.
All my silliness.
All my spastic-ness.
All my ambitions.
All my crazy optimism.
All my strong-willingness.
All my million ideas.
Ladies, show that man who you really are when you first meet him.
Be yourself.
If he likes you, then he likes you for who you really are. But if he likes you because you’re being someone that you’re not or just trying to impress, you’re going to have a miserable husband in the future.
When he finds out that you’re not who he thought you were when you first met, you may never be able to please him. And after a house and a few kids, that could make for a miserable marriage. And the same for men – you’re going to have a miserable future wife if she doesn’t love you for who you really are when you first meet.
One thing I didn’t seem to ever be afraid of was being myself 🤪.
I’m naturally quiet and shy, but get me talking and I’ll talk your head off. Even though I can be really reserved, I realized later in life that I also did things in public that most people just don’t do — you know, like licking your plate at a restaurant. 🤭
I know my parents had to have taught me dinner etiquette, but my attention span probably wasn’t very good. On our first date, I got the blank stare and a surprised look on Ernie’s face as I gulped down my huge salad military style, and then……… licked my plate.
Oh, that’s not allowed? Oops!
I still can’t believe I did that! Like, what was I thinking?! Goes to show how oblivious I was to life.
Although I’ve gotten MUCH better about being a lady and using proper dinner manners, I’ll still use it on him! “Hey, you knew what you got yourself into from the very beginning… and no one forced you to marry me!”
He SURELY could’ve left after that first date, but…
apparently, he liked something!
I guess all my good qualities outweighed the fact that I licked my plate in a restaurant on our first outing!
While I’m not saying that we shouldn’t strive to better ourselves on a regular basis, this phrase speaks volumes:
Those that mind don’t matter, and those that matter don’t mind.
I don’t know who thought of it, but it can be very true in many cases.
Before I met Ernie, I had a boyfriend that I thought loved me because he said he did. Not long after, that guy broke my heart by saying he never loved me, rumors about me spread and got right back to me – and they came from him. Not only that, but he was my homecoming date…
and now I didn’t have one.
Instead, he went with a girl he’d been flirting with in one of his classes.
Thank God we didn’t have social media back then. Thank You, Lord.
That was the start of my freshman year of high school. Needless to say, I had NO interest in dating again. I literally turned down every single request to date. Every single one. I didn’t want to have anything to do with boys for a very long time.
Even when I met Ernie a month before graduation my senior year, I still had no interest! But here we are, 18 years later!
So even though it was truly heartbreaking for me at 13-14 years old to deal with a guy who was interested for the wrong reasons, someone else came along 3 years later for the right reasons.
He truly loved me more than anyone else ever had before. Even after all the weird things I’ve done, he’s been cheering me on and loving me through it all. I’ve been blessed beyond what I deserve.
>> Be someone you’re not, and the wrong people will love you.
>> Be yourself, and the right people will love you.
>> For those of you who are looking for the “right one,” stop looking.
The right people will come along, they will love you for you, and they won’t spread rumors about you. They’ll keep you and embrace the bad with the good.
And it won’t be a surprise to them when you lick your plate 🙂
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