I was recently talking to a friend who is new to RPW and sharing some insight with her and felt called to share a recent win with the community. If you check out my prior posts, youā€™ll see a little more of my journey and how RPW has been instrumental in my life over the last few years.

I recently moved in with my boyfriend, weā€™ve been together for almost a year and while it wasnā€™t my plan to move in together before we were at least engaged, sometimes life happens and ignores your well-laid plans. I was ANXIOUS that moving in together would wreak havoc on our until-now-perfect relationshipā€¦ we had never argued or had any major issues but a big step like this could be the time that past issues flare up, right? Add in my past relationship trauma and the extra stress of having roommates and I was clinging to the belief that what Iā€™ve learned from RPW would be my saving grace as we embarked on this journey together. Spoiler: it WAS!

Something about me that I think many of you will get: I can be a bit controlling - I get anxious, I like plans, and I like things to go ā€œas they shouldā€ (according to me). So when I moved in with my boyfriend, I pretty much only brought my clothes and bathroom stuff since his house was already furnished and we plan to get our own place when the lease ends. I asked him where my things would go and he immediately planned to clean out his big dresser for meā€¦ awesome, right? But then he didnā€™t do it immediately. So I waited a bit and brought it up again, asked when he might do it so I could fully unpackā€¦. he didnā€™t seem especially excited to do it just then.

Past me woke up a little and wanted to REACT - to scold him, tell him it made me feel like he didnā€™t even want me to move in, cause a scene and blow this little issue into a huge ordeal. RPW me chose to have grace. He works nights, heā€™s got some personal stuff going on, he probably had every intention of doing that for me but just couldnā€™t do it that second. So instead of causing a scene, and instead of doing it myself which would have been just as problematic, I used my day off to deep clean the rest of the house and cook dinner for us. I spent the night hanging out with him, we watched a movie he wanted to see, we had sexā€¦ and the next day, while I was at work, what did he do?

HE CLEANED OUT THE DRESSER. Not just that, he also cleared out half the space in the bathroom and bought new sheets for us to put on our bed together. No nagging, no fighting, no stress. I thanked him for it, unpacked, lit a candleā€¦ and he thanked me for my patience and told me how excited he was for us to be living together officially.

What was a day or two of impatience on my part would once upon a time have become a full-blown ordealā€¦ and now, itā€™s just a reason to have some grace, practice STFU, and see what happens when my man feels loved, seen, and appreciated. :)

Bonus win: we are planning a trip to go visit my family so he can bond with my dad and ask him for his blessing to marry me. I am so grateful and so in love with this man.