Check out ‘His Love Stories’ @ Boundless!

Just finished reading a beautiful article by Elisabeth Adams on the Boundless webzine – love it! When you have time, you need to definitely check out “His Love Stories“. It’s so beautiful to see that God works and God loves and God moves His people together to understand how deep His love is for US through real flesh and blood intimate relationships. Why is this so cool? Oh, I’ll tell you why! He wrote His love story on my heart, too! Our God is amazing!

For more good reading: [Don't] Mind the Gap: Part 1 also at Boundless.

Girl’s Guidebook is out!

This is not a joke!

The Girl’s Guide to Marrying Well is finally out! You can download a copy at Boundless.org, the young adult division of Focus on the Family.  It’s great.  Seriously, I’m not being sarcastic.  At the end, there’s a hotline to request a date with a single, Christian eligible bachelor. http://www.boundless.org/girls/

That was a joke. But the online collection is pretty encouraging. From the perspective of a single, Christian female, I found it a good read.  Affirmed the call to be patient, to be yourself, and to seek God’s glory rather than your ex-boyfriends whereabouts.  It also reaffirmed the Biblical perspective of the female image and God’s beautiful design for her right here on earth. Impressive.  It serves as a reminder to me to never take my single brothers and sisters in Christ for granted – especially when guidance seems to be lacking. 

Reading the Guy’s Guide to Marrying Well (why read just one side?) also affirmed my belief that guys need a ton of affirmation and assistance from the community in taking charge and “putting it all on the line” like they ought to if they want to be real men and take risks in life that are worthwhile…

Can I get an amen from anybody?

Lord, you don’t even know

Lord, you don’t even know how important this is to me! I want to see this relationship work! I was praying to God this morning and had to laugh as I was hearing myself. This is God I’m talking to. Oh wait, you completely know. In fact, you know more than anybody just how much I’m wanting things to work out…

I’ve been praying to God for some pretty big, pretty direct ways I’m asking Him to guide me. And I’ve been letting Him know in no uncertain terms that I’m leaning on Him for direction. What I’ve found so far is that…

He wants to know our hearts: delicately, He listens to us – He doesn’t make us feel foolish for our desires, our shame, our confusion. He let us come as we are, and He just listens. In a way better than any friend can listen, He leans in and shares with us. The intimacy and understanding of our Father is greater than anything of this world. “my sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me.”

He delivers: He doesn’t leave us wondering. He speaks to us…like He spoke to Elijah in the tiny whisper. In so many different ways, He shows His glory. Now, it might not be in the exact answer that I want, but if I look back at the moments I’ve spent talking with God, I see Him working through my life and through other believers around me. More than encouraging, it’s awesome. “in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

He never leaves: no matter where we are, He’s there. Sometimes I feel so alone in situations that I just want to shut down. But whatever I’m thinking, He’s there – in just random ways I see. A memory, a beautiful day, a Scripture passage that drives home…He has not forgotten me. ”God will never leave us nor forsake us.”

Believe, God knows. God knows more than I can even try to understand.

Be blessed.

Love the Right Way

I think it’s possible to love the wrong way. My intentions can show that I might put a limit on how far or how much love I might give. They can tell me if I’ve mistaken love for something else, or if I’ve ignored it for shameful reasons. That’s loving all wrong. But ”the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable” (Psalm 10:32).

Loving the right way doesn’t come with butterflies. It doesn’t come with an A+ or a round of applause. You don’t always get a feeling or a voice in the night. Loving the right way is patient, it’s righteous, godly, and it takes your whole being. Loving the right way takes practice. And it’s not easy. It speaks through everything you do. It brings you closer to God, to His glory, to His people. And it will always return.

1 Corinthians 13

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity sufferth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth (boasts) not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. ~~~

Prone to Wander

(wander like a giraffe? I don’t know, just went to the zoo and wanted to post a picture…)

God is so good. You know? There’s no comparison to the beauty He gives and the love He has. Even though we are so conflicted and confused and have so many questions, He’s still there. He still allows the sun to shine, allows the birds to sing, allows the day to end. There’s no question for Him too big, too insignificant that He can’t come in and let you know He’s there. Amazing! Sometimes I have no peace whatsoever about situations, relationships, and then the Holy Spirit gives me peace like a gorgeous sleep and I know God still walks with me. In moments when I’m prone to wander and doubt God’s power and love for me, I’m thankful that He’s already taken my heart and won’t ever let go – no matter what.  

Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise His Name I’m fixed upon it
Name of God’s redeeming love.Hither to thy love has blessed me
Thou has brought me to this place
And I know thy hand will bring me
Safely home by thy good grace
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Bought me with His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee:

 

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

No Love Note Needed

When you don’t call a girl, for whatever reason, it’s not on your priority list. She doesn’t need a love note or a bouquet of roses, or sympathy. When you don’t ask to see how she’s doing, or take time to hang out – she gets it. Females see through the attempts and can call it for what it is – disinterest. Sure it may take some time and heartbreak, but eventually reality will set in and she’ll move on as other things creep into the schedule. I’m not sure what guys do on the other hand, but they would do a greater service to be honest and at least call it for what it is.   

“At the age of eleven or thereabouts
women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations
which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later
seventies.” – P.G. Wodehouse

To their credit, I believe women adapt much earlier than that.

Recommended reading: “I’m just not attracted to her – Part 2“