Love can be candy and roses, but it’s also picking regurgitated carrots from your daughter’s curls. It’s watching your husband scrape vomit from your car’s cup holders on a 12-degree day. It’s ugly and gross, in sickness or in health, for better or worse.

That’s how we spent our Valentine’s Day 2016. Not ideal, but real. And I think it was the most accurate metaphor for love. I could probably write more, but I’m still queasy, and someone else has already articulated this far more eloquently:

Grit Is Often The Best Description Of Love. It was easy to love [my wife] when we were newlyweds. Easy for her to love me during seasons of comfort. But it’s much more difficult to fight for love when you lose a baby. Or have a huge financial setback. Or confess a really ugly secret about yourself. Fairy tales are great for movies, but real life is more often confusing, chaotic and messy. Dig in when it gets hard.