Reflections on God's gift to Women 3.14.06

*** Allow me to preface this blog... I have been re-visiting my myspace days. It is fascinating to read my perspective from six years ago...tomorrow :-) I am working on new reflections but I was inspired by this old one... It's still my heart. Even though I'm more practical and less of a hopeless romantic these days... Enjoy!***


so i was perusing someone's myspace and read a really great post about the way of women... he inspired me to write one of my own.  i often write about being woman...but we share this world and we were given life to be partners with men.  it's time to give respect where it is due.
Man.  The first image that God formed to represent Himself, to be His faithful companion and to wrestle and rule the rest of His creation.  I find it intriguing that our God first chose to demonstrate His likeness in man.  Man is strength.  He's a source and an encouragement. He is safe although rugged and untame.  Within him lies a great God-given power, to be the foreman of the ranch to both tame wildness and unleash passion in a way that only points to a great Creator. 
Standing on a swinging bridge above a rushing waterfall and looking into eyes that say, "You aren't walking this alone.  I won't let you fall, just hold on tight," makes a woman's heart soar with energy to go the distance, to see what is beyond the next peak...  For a woman, nothing is more exhilarating than knowing that she is safe and protected even in her wildest dreams...that she will not be flying alone.
A man...free to be all that the Creator intended...is a sight to behold.  God knew this...that's why He made man.  What is beautiful is what unfolds just after creating man.  God realizes that man alone is not fully reflecting Himself...so He creates woman to bring a representation of His Beauty...His gentleness...and most importantly so that His passion for relationship and life would not be lost on Man who is lonely.  Without the mountain...the grass and the trees and the birds would be useless.  It is the combination of the two that brings the full picture.
Man without Woman...lacking.  Woman without Man...lacking.  Man and Woman without God...nothing.  God, as seen through the unity of Man and Woman, Beautiful Strength...

Thank the Creator God for the Strength and the Beauty...thank You for our partners....
 

Hold My Hand

Nothing moves me more than seeing two life-weathered people deeply in love. I love seeing that look in their eye that says, "I'm yours & you are mine." I love when a couple has been married longer than they were not married...how they still tease one another relentlessly & then moments later they say, "This is my best friend." it speaks so much to me about God's intentions for us to love deeply, fiercely & loyally...till death do us part.

I work in an orthopedics office. About 90% of our clientele come to us because their bodies are getting older and it's time for a knee or hip replacement. But several times a day, a little couple will shuffle up to my window... Tell me some good stories on their way out the door. What just melts my little romantic heart is when they begin to leave, they help each other gather up purse, hat, paperwork, etc and then reach for each other's hands. They walk away together. Usually one is protective of the other... Today, i checked out a lady who was a little wobbly and before she could even turn to leave I heard her husband say..."hold my hand." She reached for his hand and he took it, kissed it & tucked it under his arm, safe & secure... They shuffled arm in arm out the door. All I could do was watch... That simple act of loving endearment took my breath away...

One of my life goals is to marry my best friend & to celebrate our 50th anniversary. I want the joy of shuffling through even the toughest seasons with someone who will say, "Hold my hand..." now, I could turn this to a spiritual metaphor... In fact, the Lord has said that to me :-) I am grateful that He does hold my hand through all of life's journey. But today, I want to express how beautiful that human relationship is...that intricate & intimate friendship called marriage. Hollywood cannot hold a candle to this kind of romance... Wrinkles, warts & broken hips...love only deepens.

How beautiful :-)

waiting for you is like...

"....waiting for rain in this drought. Useless and disppointing." (A Cinderella Story).

Earlier this evening, I was thinking...and this line just blurted out of my heart into the room. I've had a dream, an ongoing hope, an ever welling desire to know and be known by the one that God has called me to spend my life serving, sharing my past, present and future with...my companion...my co-laborer in the faith... my husband.

1 Corinthians 13 says..."Love is Patient." The following verses further emphasize this point...the very next phrase in this passage says, "Love is Kind." What is interesting is that even Kindness is defined as patience or forbearance which means to hold oneself back, to not react or retalliate. I've been moved by the revelation that God, Who is LOVE, is Patient and slow to wrath. His kindness leads us to repentance...it's His PATIENCE that causes us to turn to Him in our weakness, in the depths of our despair and the darkest, most wretched hole of sin...it's His Patience, not His anger that causes us to RUN into His arms. So what does our love look like? Shouldn't it reflect that same patience...

"I don't know if you're near or far away, but I know that I'm thinking of you today...." this song by LaRue slipped from my lips this evening... In my high school years, I would listen to it as I went to sleep, praying for my husband. Now, a decade later...I still pray, but it is with a sense of restlessness...a weariness...a longing that has matured. I no longer wait for a Prince Charming, a Knight in Shining Armor...but for a Strong Man with a Pure Heart...someone to who will be what I need...someone who will carry me when I'm weak, someone who is not perfect but who lives with the intention to honor Jesus with every fiber of his being...someone who loves the idea of waking up next to me until we're both wrinkly and not so "pretty"...someone who holds the other piece to the BIG picture that God has put on my heart...someone who will laugh at life with me!

I pray with the awareness that comes from having loved...and having had my heart broken...and that brokenness is part of life... I pray with the awareness that to chase and pursue someone because I think he is what I want is useless and disappointing,very humbling and painful....more so than waiting. I pray with an awareness that God is shaping and forming my husband more and more into the likeness of Christ (the great Husband)...and that I am becoming more and more ready to be a bride... each day teaches me more about what it means to honor someone in spite of disagreement... to serve someone when they "don't deserve it"...to trust someone else's leadership...

This desert dance is one of faith...for we are called to live by faith, not by sight...it is one of expectancy, for surely faith gives way to sight. In the meantime, my LOVE grows... as I learn the art of patience. There are some days that my faith fails me...like a blind man, being led through a busy street... I stumble...I fret...I fight...I sit down and pout.

There are days that I want to just take life into my own hands...to make things appear... But in the waiting and stillness...in patience, I am made stronger... my hope grows and becomes experience...Jesus becomes more and more to me ...and I am reminded of what one wise friend said to me..."No man's love will ever fulfill you until you come to rest and experience the true, uncondional love of Jesus."


So though, I wish you would hurry along...quit taking so long...I pray that you would be rooted and grounded in Christ, that your identity would go down deep into His love... I pray that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of your understanding...that your ears and sight would be restored...I pray that you would know...that you would know...the direction of the Father. Be Strong in the Power of His might! I love you...and I will wait...in this desert...in this place of solitude...until you are ready.

real love (may 2009)

it's been said that "the one with the most power/security in a relationship is the one who loves the least." hm...so i guess that basic premise means that we shouldn't love at all...that we should hold everyone at bay and let them love us...but that we should never just dive in headfirst and go after it... that we should never truly love. BECAUSE whoever loves...will get hurt...and will be rendered powerless in the loving and be left alone in the end. well, maybe that's not what you hear when you read that saying...but that's what i hear.for so long, i've lived with that motto in the back of my mind. and yet, i always try to defy the odds. every time i dive in head first...lose myself in loving...i get hurt...and i find that no one can love me back as much as i love them. of course, i guess, it all depends on why i'm loving in the first place, am i loving people to get loved back? hmmm...essentially, yes...i'm human. that means that there really is not a selfless bone in my body...so even though i do love people and i love them truly with my whole heart...somewhere deep inside, i love them because i want them to love me back. and every time i've loved for that reason, i've lost. i've deeply loved...i've paid for the rollercoaster, i've buckled up next to people and held on for dear life... and when the ride is over...it seems like everyone gets off the ride, except me...and i just keep riding... like i can't get off the ride...my buckle is stuck... haha.but there's another saying about love...well, actually quite a few sayings, but this one in particular stands out to me..."Greater love has no man than this, than that he lay down his life for his friends." that's right...um, Jesus said that...in John 15 just before he was to be crucified :-) ouch. and He also went on to say, if you love me, you'll obey my commandments...and we've all heard it said "do as i say, not as i do." but Jesus was the only one who could say..."do as i do, not just as i say." HE DID IT! and he died for it :-) and did he gain our love???? nope. not really. i mean, He gained our gratitude, He gained our sugar daddy in the sky mentality...but sometimes i think,,,,did He gain our love? Jesus died (and rose from the dead :-) so that we could KNOW Him and LOVE Him... He got on the ride with us...He lived in a sinful world, was tempted at all points...but yet did not sin!!! how...?? who knows...but HE DID IT! and He faced the ultiimate rejection in His love... and yet He kept on loving... He still loves us in our fickle love. and He calls us to LOVE AS HE LOVED.most often, i'm like, um no...that hurts and i don't wanna. but that's what it is... if we are His disciples, we are to take up our cross and follow Him...all the way through the journey...God, give us that kind of love in our hearts...let us love unconditionally. help us live our lives without fear of rejection so that we may love as You first loved us! and give us the grace to face that rejection because You did..and you said if they did it to You, they'll do it to us. forgive us for loving only when it's convenient. forgive us for running and hiding when we should be standing firm and loving beyond our emotions. forgive me for feeling sorry for myself when everyone gets off the rollercoaster and leaves me buckled in. God, my life is not my own any longer...i was bought with a price...Your life for mine... Holy Spirit, give me the grace to love like You love...