5 Things I’ve Never Told My Husband

Why is that you can spend the greater part of your life with someone, and share with them the most intimate experience known to man, and yet never tell them how you truly feel about them? So, in honor of St. Valentine’s Day, I will open my heart and reveal five things that I’ve never told my husband.

To my dear husband,

1. Before you, I didn’t exactly have the greatest track record when it came to relationships, demonstrated by a broken engagement, a divorce and a string of prior boyfriends. Just months before we met, even though I was not particularly religious at that time, I prayed frequently and earnestly for God to send me a life partner. I asked for a man who would love me as I am, and be a true partner—not trying to control my life, but working hand in hand with me. Then I met you. During our first date, at the end of a slow dance, I didn’t want to let you go.  We’ve been a couple since that night, and I am convinced that you were an answer to my prayer, a gift from God.
2. You are one of the kindest people I know, and you have set a good example for me. I will never forget a day early in our relationship when you gently chastised me for purposely crushing an insect on the sidewalk, for no good reason other than an exuberance of spirit and an aversion to bugs. I love your reverence for every living thing—even when you mow around the weed flowers in the lawn. You have made me a better, kinder person.
3. You are thoughtful of others. Despite your busy schedule and preoccupation with work, you ask me how my day went. You take the neighbor’s trash can to the curb along with ours. You help with the housework without being asked, and never fail to thank me for making dinner. You would literally give the shirt off your back if someone needed it. Your momma raised you right, and I am grateful.
4. You are very generous, sometimes even depriving yourself to give to others. Having lived through times of poverty, I grew up to be somewhat stingy, afraid of not having enough for myself. By your example, I have come to know the joy of giving, and now believe that you get in proportion to what you give.
5. I love how you are almost always cheerful. Even when things are not going your way; even when you are paged in the middle of the night for a work problem, you just seem to greet everything with a laugh and a smile. I, who tended to be pessimistic and take things too seriously, have been changed by you. I’ve learned to be silly, to laugh at myself, to look on the bright side of things and accept adversity as a challenge.

There is more I could say, but being the modest person that you are, you will likely feel surprised at all this praise. I’ve sometimes said that God put you in my life to teach me patience—and I believe that. But I’ve also said that you are the best man I know, and that is the truth. Thank you for making the past 25 years the happiest of my life.