Motto Mondays

Image Credit: Chai and Cherry

Chai and Cherry is a blog and has a section for long distance relationships. This image is from a post where they talk about communication and making it work in long distance relationships.

Keeping a long distance relationship going is only possible with communication and in our society, it is easier than ever to communicate via cell phone. Although this generation might not appreciate the use of communication, maintaining it in your relationships is the most important aspect of any relationship.

Every morning, my boyfriend and I try to send a positive saying or quote to each other so we can start our days out by thinking about one another. Motto Mondays are going to be about some of my favorite quotes he sent me throughout the week.

This week he sent me a verse from the book of Proverbs. It says, The make of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe." This was the encouragement I had needed for the day because he knew how much stress I had been in the previous day. I feel like I can always rely on him to encourage me when I need it. 

Another memorable quote from last week was this, "Injuries give you perspective. They teach you to cherish the moments that I might have taken for granted before." I am currently recovering from a torn ACL and he knows my frustration with it. This quote was encouraging for me to push through the pain.

Lastly, there was a time we were dealing with some issues and he still sent me a quote. It said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them. -Albert Einstein" This showed me that he was still thinking about me, thinking of ways to solve our issues, as well as encouraging me to do the same. Most of the time he sends random quotes, but when I really need it, there is so much meaning and heart behind the quote he will send me. 

I hope when you read these quotes, you will find them helpful in one way or another. Either they encourage you or you can use them to encourage others. Communication is important in all relationships so use this encouragement in yours! Have you and your partner ever done something similar to this? What are some ways you encourage each other in your relationships?

What Do You See?

Image Credit: http://www.xinhuanet.com

This image seems to be a long winding road, moving around things that all in its path, rather than just going straight through. This is how relationships can work. Besides the typical roller coaster analogy, long distance relationships can be like a long winding road. 

When you love someone enough to stay in a relationship where you might only see each other once a month, things become distant. As much as you might try to talk to each other everyday, it becomes difficult to stay close when your lives become messy and busy. You are going from one thing to another, weaving around obstacles to be able to talk to or see each other. 

You have your ups and downs in every relationship and the distance only makes it more difficult. Look at the curves in the road as your downs and the straits as your ups; You might have different arguments or times where you go days without talking to each other. Those things are always going to be followed by the straights in the road though, the good and simple parts of your relationship. You get to either see each other or talk on the phone for hours on end. 

This last year, I experiences one of the biggest "curves in the road" that I ever have with him. He is in his second year of college, taking 18 credit hours and has a full time job while I am a student athlete. With this being said we both have very busy schedules. This makes things more difficult when you add 3 hours in between you. There was a time that he was suppose to come down to see me and spend the weekend but things got too busy and he had to cancel. It was also his busiest working month of the year while I was having a hard time dealing with my ACL recovery. I was feeling very alone while he was having a great time with work and his friends but was not able to talk to me throughout his day. I felt like he was not making time for me but I never said anything until it was all bottled up and I blew up on him. He did not see that he wasnt making time for me and that I was alone dealing with a big time in my life. Because our schedules were so busy, we did not have a lot of time to talk about this issue so it only became a bigger problem the longer we were apart. 

When he was finally able to come home we sat down and talked about all of the feelings we had towards the situation. This is again when I realized how important communication is. I should not have bee keeping these feelings to myself for as long as I had because he then could not see the problem developing in front of us. This has helped to to always be honest with him when I am feeling something specific which has helped me grow because sometimes the feelings I have are difficult to explain.

In long distance relationships, you must cherish every good thing and be intentional with your time together because those curves in the road are inevitable. 

Remember, "This too shall pass." Everything, whether it is good or bad, it will pass and the opposite will arise. These are the curves in the road that will turn into straights then vise versa. We endured a big curve in the road but then were able to work things out, together and things were back to normal.

Do you think this is a useful analogy? Does it help to understand issues in long distance relationships a little more?

Long Distance Relationship Introduction

I chose to talk about long distance relationships because I love love and I have a passion for people. My relationship has helped me to grow as a person as well as in my other relationships. Long distance relationships with a lover or even a best friend is a hard thing and I want to share my experiences. 

I have been in a long distance relationship with my boyfriend for the last three years. We have had lots of great memories but like every kind of relationship there are problems and arguments; learning from them and growing to strengthen the relationship together has become something Ive learned to do well. 

I have had many different experiences of my own and have helped others who are in long distance relationships. I love people and love helping them grow so when someone comes to me with relationship problems, it is easy to give advice because of my experience. The important things in a relationship are hard to realize when you're going through a hard time.

An example of this would be finding the underlying reason you want to stay together when you have not actually been together in a longtime. Towards the beginning of my relationship, I would have doubts of if I wanted to stay with him. It was hard because I had not seen him for a month, we were 3 hours apart, and he did not have a car with him, so it was difficult to get to one another. The way we worked through it was talking about it. I mentioned to him that I was having a hard time with stating with him when I could not actually be with him. We talked and realized that that is the hardest part of a long distance relationship and we would wait until we saw each other again to make any decisions about splitting up. After spending time together I realized that it would be dumb not to stay with him just because I could not see him, because the time we are together are so great and we fit together so well. With this, I also learned that when we are able to have time together, we need to take advantage of it because we do not often get it. 

Reading my blog would be ideal for anyone who wants advice about how to make a long distance relationship work. I would like to tell my readers about my experiences and how Ive worked through different issues that come with being in a long distance relationship. I hope this advice will help others who may be having issues so that they can have something special like I do.

A blog called Cup of Jo by Joanna Goddard has a section about relationship advice that has helped me to realize certain things. Reading her stories help me to realize that some things that happen, are not just happening to me. When I need encouragement I look to her and I hope when you need encouragement, you can look to me.