What is romance?

A while back, on a forum I visit, someone asked the question, "What does romance mean to you?"

Romance means different things to each of us at different times in our lives. I would have answered this question differently when I was a young teenager, and differently still when I was falling in love with my husband. I'm sure it changed yet again when we hit the rough years, just as it changed when we pulled through.

Most romance books focus on the initial falling in love, of course. But to me, the seeds for romance that will last a lifetime need to be there in the beginning. Far too many marriages fail in today's difficult world for me to believe in a story's happily-ever-after if those seeds aren't there.

So what does romance mean to me now, as a married woman?


Romance, to me, is when you and your husband love each other so much that you can't imagine your life without him in it, and he can't imagine his life without you. It's when you want to share your life with him - when something exciting happens and he's the first one you want to tell, and when something sad happens and his shoulder is the one you want to cry on. Romance is when you even find his faults endearing because they're part of who he is, and it's when he tells you that even though you mess up sometimes (and you know it's really lots of times) he still thinks of you as perfect because you are perfect for him.

Romance is when you wake up in the morning, and you know your eyes aren't completely open and your hair is sticking out all over the place, and he smiles in delight and calls you 'Beautiful.' It's when he comes home from work so exhausted that he falls asleep on the floor and you can't help smiling to see him sleeping like a child, even though he's a grown man. It's that private smile that you share when you're in a crowd of people, and you meet his eyes across the room. It's when you're standing in line in McDonalds, a bunch of other men come in, and he steps closer to you and sneaks an arm around your waist because he wants to make it plain that you're his.

REAL romance is the expression of the love that binds a man and woman together. It is, perhaps, one of the most beautiful things that God has ever created. I'm going on 13 years of marriage - 16 years of loving the same man - and it just gets sweeter with every year that goes by.