Fairy Tales Are Real.

You're shaking your head already? Is it because you've heard me say too many times that Disney gives little girls a false idea of how relationships work with men? Or because I've been so mean about the dismally uninteresting and unrealistic plots of modern romantic comedies?

Or, maybe you're with me on this one. As a teen and young adult, I really honestly thought romantic comedies were like documentaries of real life relationships I would someday experience. Sometimes I wish I had a time machine to hop into and tell my younger self something: That these stories, although shiny and entertaining, rarely represent real life.

Don't get me wrong... And don't think I'm trying to express, in a not so subtle way, that my marriage is on the rocks (it's not, I promise). I think though, that when any honest married person tells the whole and non-sugarcoated truth, they will say that marriage is not easy. It's not a fun, silly romp through a field, where you start out hating each others guts and then all of a sudden, realize you're perfect for each other and fall in love. Boom. Then your life becomes a rose colored haze, spending your time swooning 24/7 over your special guy/gal and can't wait to make out with them every moment for the rest of your life.

One of Disney's old-school love stories: Snow White and her Prince Charming

Sound familiar? Didn't think so.

Here's the catch though: I personally believe we can live moments of our favorite fairy tales, even in our broken world with imperfect people.

Here's the God's honest truth about marriage (in my opinion): Even after passing through the honeymoon stage of being married, even after consistently seeing your significant other's dirty laundry, getting super annoyed at the sound of them crunching cereal at 7 am, hurting each other's feelings over and over--  there are many moments you find yourself blown away by the other person's beauty. Unfortunately everyday life, jobs, and exhaustion seem to deaden our ability to see the person in their full beauty, the way we saw them when we were first dating. It's not that they aren't that way every moment. We just can't see it all the time.

Or can we?

Can you think back to one of your first dates with your S.O.? Or even before you started dating, and you had that special fuzzy feeling toward them, hoping that something might happen? I think we can look back on purpose and choose to see the mystery and beauty of our spouse or S.O. We can choose to not see them through the filter of laundry, bills, and "normal" life. On top of that, I have found that my husband has become more beautiful to me in a deeper way since we got married almost five years ago. He is consistently loving and faithful to me, never fails to ask me how my day was. He chooses to give me the better half of the steak at dinner. He provides for us, not just  financially, but in many other ways as well. I often tell people that he is a much nicer person than I am, and I stand by that.

People have told me over and over that marriage "just gets better" over the years. What I'm thinking they mean is, that it doesn't get more rose-colored, or more like a romantic comedy. I think they mean time reveals the deeper beauty of the person, and this causes you to love your S.O. in a much different way than Hollywood would want us to believe. We continue building a foundation of commitment into the relationship every time we refuse to walk away from the problems we all encounter. And that, my friends, is true beauty.

But that's just me (being painfully honest), at almost five years of marriage. By no means am I claiming this to be truth for everyone, although I am pretty sure if we caught up with Snow White and Prince Charming right now, they might say something similar... Thoughts?