Looove. (Part 2)

I met a man in West Virginia who said, "I spell love J-e-s-u-s.  Without Jesus, there is no love.  People go looking for it every which way and there's only one place true love can be found: in Jesus."  His words hold such an important truth.  We can't possibly know how to love one another unless we've been exposed to the Creator and Definition of love. 

Let's put it this way: if you've never cooked in your life, why would you volunteer to make a five course meal?  You wouldn't.  With marriage, it's the same concept.  A good, godly marriage is a five course meal that can't be properly achieved without knowing the basics.  And in order to know the basics, you have to take "cooking" lessons.  During these lessons, God teaches you how to make the ultimate meal.  In other words, God prepares you and your heart for the kind of beautiful relationship He has intended.  A relationship that will last.

The first thing that single people tend to fail to realize is that God cares enough about you and your mate to prepare your hearts for one another.  He will not entrust you with the heart of your mate until He knows you are prepared to take care of it.  He loves your mate even more than you will and only desires the best for both of you.  Therefore, until you are ready for one another, He's not just going to thrust you into his or her life and vice versa.  Why?  Because if you're not prepared, if you haven't learned the proper lessons, you will mess the relationship up big time.  You don't have the foundation of a healthy, godly relationship and you lack the principles needed to develop a relationship with staying power.

Personally speaking, my "cooking" lessons have recently been teaching me of forgiveness, love, and compassion.  Believe it or not, these are very difficult lessons to learn and they can be painful.  Any time that we put ourselves up to the light of Christ, it illuminates any discrepancies between our heart and the Father's.  And I've learned that God still has a lot of work to do with me, but it's important work.  It guarantees that my waiting in the meantime is not passive waiting, but active waiting.  The lessons I'm learning in forgiveness will help me to show mercy towards my life's companion.  The lessons I'm learning in love and compassion will allow me to love my mate with my whole heart the way God intended.

So in the meantime, while you're patiently waiting to be blessed with the person God has for you, don't lose sight of the one relationship that truly matters: the one you hold with Christ.  The relationship you have with Christ will be reflected in all other relationships in your life, especially the relationship you hope to attain with your soul mate.  Truly listen and be aware of what God is trying to teach you and share with you because I can guarantee you that it will benefit you.  Not only in a lifetime commitment, but in a lifetime.