This Is What I Learned From My Parents About Tough Love

My mom and dad always fight, like all the time. During those fights, I thought that one day we’ll become a broken family too just like what happened to most families out there–but I was wrong. Our family is still intact despite all odds.

I learned that tough love requires a lot of patience, not only with your partner but also with yourself. You need to be patient enough to wait for your partner to grow and learn from his/her mistakes. Age doesn’t stop a person from growing, so it’s important to have a lot of patience for both of you to grow.

I learned that tough love requires sacrifice. When you’re committed to someone, your happiness and freedom aren’t solely just for you. It means that in order for your relationship to remain strong, you need to sacrifice your own happiness for your partner not because you were forced to do it but because you want to.

I also learned that tough love requires forgiveness. It’s hard to forgive the person whom you love the most and yet hurts you so bad. If you really love someone, you’ll forgive even without them being sorry for what they did. You will never know that you truly loved someone if you haven’t forgive them. God forgave us despite the fact that we’re all sinners and that originally is tough love.

Lastly, I learned that tough love is a choice. This is the kind of love wherein you have to choose if you’ll fight for it or simply give up. We choose the person whom we want to spend the rest of our lives with and it’s up to us if we want to keep them or lose them. Tough love requires two people who both know they deserve each other and will fight for the love they have despite all the odds they’ll encounter.

I am truly grateful to God for blessing me with my parents and the tough love they have for each other. Someday, I’ll have that kind of love too.