I've come to realize those conversations are quietly becoming some of my favorite memories.

Recently, Jermaine shared something with me that has stayed on my heart. He wrote about how easy it is to let yesterday shape the way we see today. How past disappointments, misunderstandings, or old wounds can become the lens through which we interpret each new conversation.

He reminded me that if we're not careful, we stop seeing the person standing in front of us and instead begin responding to versions of each other created by past pain.

That thought challenged both of us.

Because love isn't just choosing each other once.

It's choosing, over and over again, to see one another through a different lens.

A lens of grace.

A lens of compassion.

A lens of curiosity.

A lens of hope.

A lens that asks, "Help me understand," before assuming we already know the answer.

That doesn't mean pretending hard things never happened. Every marriage has seasons that leave marks on our hearts. We've certainly had ours. But healing often begins when we stop allowing the past to write every future conversation.

We've learned that the strongest marriages aren't built because two people never hurt each other.

They're built because two imperfect people keep choosing to move toward one another, even when it's easier to retreat.

Photography has taught us something similar.

The way we frame a photograph changes everything.

The same scene can tell two completely different stories depending on the lens through which it's viewed.

Maybe relationships work the same way.

Maybe one of the greatest gifts we can give the people we love is the willingness to see them as they are today—not only as they were yesterday.