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I didn’t want to sew on his new Bobcat patch. I didn’t want to do the extra load of laundry for her basketball shirt the next day. I didn’t want to make the treats for his classroom. I didn’t want to go shopping for band concert clothes.

I didn’t want to clean the stove. I didn’t want to match the socks. I didn’t want to fill out the paperwork. I didn’t want to stop at the hardware store.

 Love is a choice. It rubs me raw when movies and books and the girls at the next table in the restaurant reduce it to only a sweet feeling.

Love, the kind that allows you to grow old together 

and grow up together 

and grow into the person you are made to be, 

is a choice. It is always a choice.

I choose love when I don’t feel like loving. 

I choose love when others aren’t loveable.

It’s not love that’s hard. It’s giving up the things I want that’s hard. It’s not being selfish that’s hard. It’s putting other people ahead of myself that’s hard.

And unexpected things often happen when I do the things I don’t want to do in the name of love. On the way home from shopping with the girls, Stephanie says, “This is one of the best days I’ve ever had. I don’t even want it to end. It’s fun when we go out as girls.”

Hannah adds, “I like that we hardly ever argue. Some of the girls in my class don’t like their moms. I’m glad you don’t yell.”

As I’m scrubbing the stove, Jordan says, “I always knew when I got a forever family, my mom would make good stuff in the kitchen.”

If you saw the dancing blue eyes when Sam realized I sewed on his patch, you would fight me for the privilege of sewing on the next one.

The truth of the matter, though, is I’m able to choose love because I live with the master of choosing love. Andy consistently looks for ways to choose love. He puts gas in my car. He picks up milk. He plays “PIG” with the hoop in Jordan’s room as part of the bedtime routine. He tolerates Winx Club after school with Hannah. He catches a zillion pitches so Steph can practice. He buys one more roll of duct tape so Sam can make more inventions out of cardboard boxes.

Love is contagious. When one person chooses to love it inspires others to choose love. The choice isn’t always easy to make, but it is always worth it. Who will you choose to love today?