I believe true love does exist. My husband (Hive account@lukestokes) and I love each other deeply. We have been married twelve years now and have supported one another through many challenging things: dealing with emotional baggage and insecurities, learning to be a “safe place” for each other, working through the deaths of my husband’s mother and father, raising three children (ages 7, 5 and 3), physical injuries, moving cross-country, coming to a place of discordant worldviews.

We do not “complete each other.” We were not two halves that came together to make a whole. Instead, we came together as two wholes and we complement one another. He is strong in areas where I am weaker and vice versa. I am in the details, while he looks at the big picture. He is more extroverted, while I am introverted. I like to cook, and he would rather do other things.

True love does exist, but it is not easy to maintain. It is a commitment. A choice. A decision. A sacrifice. A choice to work through things rather than give up and leave. It’s not all roses and lingerie. It’s messy, because we are messy. It is unconditional, forgiving, patient, kind.

I can see how other people may question the existence of true love, though. Skepticism rooted in their own personal experiences—broken relationships, conditional love, unhealthy habits/patterns, emotional/physical/sexual abuse...