This week as we have been talking about dating and what love is, it has been interesting for me to make connections within my own dating experiences and within my marriage that apply to this. My husband and I have known each other since our freshman year so for about seven years now. In high school we were best friends and there was rarely a time that we weren't together. I felt like I could confide in him and tell him anything. The greatest thing was the level of trust that we built with each other. I trusted him so much and I knew that he would never hurt me like so many guys had in my life. I loved doing everything with him. We dated a little in high school and there were some feelings toward each other but it never amounted to anything and we continued to be best friends. Then my husband (or at the time my best friend)  left on a mission so we wrote each other pretty much every week for two years. When he came home I wasn't expecting anything but when we saw each other things started right away.

I would attribute that to a couple things. First, I had been heartbroken during the time that he was gone from a previous boyfriend and from that point on I felt I couldn't trust anyone. Second, when Cameron came home our sense of friendship and caring for each other was very evident and had increased since he left. We were so much apart of each other's lives we wanted the best for one another. There was an obvious love from a friend standpoint. When he came home and all those things were present and we were at a point where we could turn that love into something more it happened just that way. I knew I could trust him and because of the strong foundation we had built for years on trust, friendship, caring, kindness, devotion, and loyalty when we began dating everything worked so well. I was completely in love with him and felt so comfortable and safe.

The things I've just described seems to be the ideal way to love someone. We have that basis of friendship and caring about the other that we are able to love one another now in a whole different way. I can't describe how amazing it is to have a relationship like that. Not everyone gets the chance to marry their best friend, and I really mean their best friend before there was any love interest. It's been an incredible blessing in my life to have a friend and now husband like I do. For me, it worked out the best this way for my personality and things that could have been harder another way. There is a caring and loving Heavenly Father behind this I know.

So stating that example was not to brag or boast, but to help me understand the levels of love. I didn't understand these things when I was in high school and I think often I misattributed my feelings for love when they had nothing to do with that. Now that I understand these things better I hope to be a source for friends and family that need it but ultimately my children. I hope to help them understand these things so that maybe they can avoid some heartache (not all) and can have healthy relationships that prepare them for marriage.