There are some love stories that you hear that make you sigh and gush about the sweetness of romance. Stories about dashing knights and fair maidens and living happily ever after. The story I heard on the drive home today does not fall into that category.

Instead, that story struck a chord deep within me, about how love is truly a decision, a commitment stronger than mere emotion. Yes, we’ve all heard that “love is a decision” spiel before. But when you see a love endure years of numerous fights and drunken bouts, see it overcome an entire spectrum of emotions from hurt to anger to fear and pain, when you see love transcend all that, then you *know* at a deeper level the truth of the phrase “love is a decision”. When you see it lived out before your very eyes, the _intellectual knowing_ is transformed into a _soul knowing_. And then you open the eyes of your heart and see another thing: love transforms. True, unconditional love can change us, can shape us piece by piece until we are a better person.

Love is more than a fleeting emotion, it is a conscious choice. And when the choice is made to love, it becomes a force for trandormation. At every moment, as a person again chooses to love, that force grows in strength. Until the person being loved can resist that force no longer, and both are transformed by that love.

That is the love story I heard today.