When you understand that God's love is the source of all love, everything changes. 💫 You stop being afraid that loving someone will make you lose yourself, because you're not basing your identity on the person you love. Your identity is rooted in something eternal. And that actually makes you more present to the person you love, not less. You're free to see them clearly, to accept them as they are, because you're not trying to get your worth from them.

I think about the vows in the Catholic tradition—how they're made not just to another person but before God, before witnesses, as part of something sacred and communal. 🕯️ That's so different from the private agreements people make now. It's not just two people who happen to feel the same way about each other. It's a public commitment, a vocation, something grounded in something bigger than feelings.

That steadiness—the knowledge that this is not just a personal choice but a sacred calling—that's what holds people together when the feelings fade and life gets hard. 💚 When you know you've made a promise before God, not just to one person but to the whole witness of your faith, you approach difficulties differently. You don't ask "Do I still love them enough?" You ask "How do I love them through this?"

Sometimes I wonder if people think faith takes away freedom in relationships. But I've experienced the opposite. 🤍 My faith gives me the freedom to love without fear, to commit without constantly questioning whether I made the right choice, to trust that there's a purpose to the struggle because someone wiser than me already walked this path.

What if the deepest commitment is possible precisely because it's rooted in something transcendent?