Choices

“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.” ― James Baldwin

Love is a choice.
Some people have been Divinely brought together, others through a match. Regardless if your match was magical or not, in order to stay together you will have to make a choice. Love is about finding the one that fits you, loves you, protects and fights for you, and your choice to love them consistently even during the ups and downs. There are a lot of people in the world who may be
more handsome or more beautiful. There will always be someone smarter or
tougher. The thing with Love is you knowing that the one you are with is the one for
you.  Do not worry about the outside appearance: what matters the most is his or her
heart. Remember that God looks at the Heart of man. When you have made that
decision, choose to choose them everyday, when you want to give up, when you want
to walk away. Through differences, misunderstandings betrayals ALWAYS   show
the love of God. These opportunities are the time to choose to fight for your
relationship, choose to forgive and choose to love. 

Good relationships and good marriages are not made by some magical power  they
are made by two people who have chosen to love each other for a lifetime. 
So go ahead, take a risk and choose to love someone!   

Falling in love as a choice

"One of the biggest areas in this culture that we are trained to relate to from a victim perspective is in relationship to romance.  To paraphrase the quote from my book above: "it is necessary to change the way we intellectually view romance in order to stop being the victim of the old tapes."We learned that romance was magical - that finding our prince or princess was a destination to reach where we would live happily ever after.  We learn about "falling in love" as if it were a camouflaged hole in the sidewalk that we just happened to fall into.""It was vital for me to start owning that falling in love was a choice I was making - not some lightening strike that I was powerless over.  As long as I was reacting unconsciously - not owning that I had some power over the beliefs I was empowering and therefore the feelings I was set up to experience because of the perspectives and expectations those beliefs created - then I was in my codependency and powerless to make choices.  I was then doomed to end up blaming her for not being a magical princess and/or blaming myself for being such an ugly frog." "The reality is that I have choices in life, and I need to take responsibility for the consequences of those choices.  If I choose to get involved with someone romantically, the responsibility for any emotional reactions are mine - not the other persons.  I may feel like the victim of her behavior, but I can tell myself the Truth - which is that I am responsible for the feelings because I was the one who choose to give her some power over my feelings." -ROBERT BARNEY