I believe in fairytales

As a little girl I loved fairytales! (Let's be honest I still love fairytales!!) I believed as a child that fairytales came true for us. I wanted the fairytale life. I wanted to live happily-ever-after! But over time, life began to teach me that those were just for the imaginations of children and not real life. I learned that there was no such thing as "happily-ever-after" but only miserable-ever-after or divorce. I saw these trends repeated over and over again in the lives of the people closest to me. And I began to think that there was something wrong with me for still wanting that dream life, so I gave up on it. I allowed the world to form my opinions on love and marriage. I began to believe that marriages rarely work out, and that it is just better not to get married. I sometimes even found myself thinking sarcastically that marriage was the last legal form of slavery. But those are big fat lies from the devil!!! He wants us to give up on our dreams. He wants us to throw away God's perfect plans for marriage and love.

 In studying God's word, I have been reminded that we are a broken, mess of a people. It began in the Garden of Eden and has carried on since then. God designed marriage to last. It is a picture of Jesus' love for the church and His commitment to all believers. That kind of love and commitment is not something that should end or be contingent on feelings

Don't get me wrong, I know very little about actually being married. I have never even been in a serious dating relationship, let alone married. But I have read what God says about it, and He is never wrong! Too many people live based on their emotions and how they feel about something. That is not healthy. If I based all of my decisions on how I felt, I wouldn't go to work most days, I would eat everything in site, and I would say everything that came to mind regardless of how it makes others feel. I don't want to love people most of the time, but I know that is what I am called to do. I don't want to get up early and drive to work to sit in a cubicle, but I have to. I don't want to filter what I say, especially when I am mad and want to tell someone off, but I have to.
I can imagine that most days in a marriage you are asked to love someone that you may not feel like loving that day for whatever reason. But you have to choose to do what is right. 

So I want to let you all know that I 100% believe that fairytales are possible! I believe that if I wait on God and the man that He has for me, I will have a God-honoring happily-ever-after. There will most certainly be hardships and trials to overcome, but it will be worth it!
When life has given us every reason to become callous toward love and marriage, wait for God's perfect plan and prove the world wrong!

Why don't we pray?

When you read the title of this post you probably thought one of two things: "I do pray thank you very much" or "Because it is useless". If the latter I am sorry that the world has caused you to doubt the serious amount of power you have when you pray to the Creator of the universe. When we pray we have the ability to change situations (ask Moses about the time God wanted to destroy the rebellious Israelites and Moses interceded for them in prayer), the power to stop the rain for years, the power to make the sun stand still, and the privilege of sharing our blessings and our pains with a God who cares what is going on in our daily lives. Those are some serious results from something as simple as having a conversation with the One who hears every word we say.

Maybe it's not just why don't we pray, but why don't we pray like we are speaking to the only One who can change our circumstances, the only One who has power over what is happening, the only One who cares enough to take our prayers into consideration?

This is a new concept in my own life as well. There are things that I want more than anything else in the world, but I am too afraid, too timid, too scared to seem desperate to ask God for what I want and need.

Here is an example: most of my life I have wanted one thing, to be the wife of an amazing, God-fearing man, but it wasn't until just recently that I started praying for him. Now I find myself praying for him as I drift off to sleep, while I'm driving to work, and so many other places. I do a lot of praying for the man he is becoming, but also for where ever he is at that moment and that what he is doing is honoring God.

I think it is important to be praying for him, and I hope he is praying for me too. But I have noticed that in my church, and probably a lot of churches across the country, praying for your future spouse has become of sign of desperation or weakness. Whether we realize it or not, the feminist, women are equals and independent, attitude have seeped into the church. I'm not saying that being independent is necessarily bad, but I see it as the reason people are marrying later in life, divorces happen more and more frequently and there has even been a rise in women abandoning their husbands and kids to live their own lives. The world tells single girls that living on our own and becoming your own woman is what life is all about. It tells us that we do not need a man to complete us because we can go out and sleep with whoever we want to and have no consequences. It is trying really hard to make us believe that by wanting to get married and have a family is a last resort or an act of desperation on our part. Marriage and God honoring relationships are no longer viewed as desirable, even in the church culture of America and it is heartbreaking.

Any thoughts on this topic?

Matriarch

A matriarch is defined as "a female head of a family, a woman who is the founder or dominant member of a community or group, a respectable and dignified older woman." The woman that embodies that definition is a pretty amazing woman in my book.

I grew up without grandfathers for most of my life. The only grandfather that I have known, my great grandfather on my dad's side, passed away when I was 6 after a long struggle with illness. Because of this, I have grown up surrounded by strong independent women. These women have taught me some incredible lessons that I am so thankful for.

The lesson that sticks with me above the rest is the love they had for their husbands, even long after they were separated by death. My great grandma, who lived to be 98, lived on her own for the better part of 15 years after my great grandfather passed away. She would tell my dad that he would have to take her out of the house in a pine box if he wanted her to move out. Her and great grandpa built that house from nothing. That is where my grandfather was born and raised, and where grandchildren and great grandchildren, and even great great grandchildren, were always welcome and well cared for. I loved to listen to her stories when I was a little girl.

She told me about a boy that she had been set up on a blind date with. They did a double date with mutual friends and were riding in the back seat of the car. He tried to kiss her and she made the driver stopped and threatened to walk home if her friend didn't sit in the back with her and make the boys ride up front. She told me this and then said, "It wasn't long after that I met your grandpa. He was such a gentleman and he never would have pulled a stunt like that!"

I want a love like that! A love that truly lasts 'until death do us part'. It might sound cliche or impossible in our culture, but I am crazy enough to believe that I have a God that is big enough and loves me enough to make that happen.


This couple is such an inspiration! They died holding hands an hour apart, after 72 years of marriage. Read their story too!

ALMOST everyone is doing it

 I ran across a blog on CNN about the new trend in unmarried Christians. It's not really a new trend, we've seen it all along, but now people are broadcasting it. It is the sad fact that unmarried Christians are now reportedly having as much premarital sex as non-Christians.

What happened to "True love waits" or purity pledges that actually made a difference in how people acted behind closed doors?

It is no surprise that while premarital sex is on the rise, marriages are crumbling because of sexual sin, more kids are being raised by single parents than ever before and divorce for any reason is so high that it makes people question marriage in the first place.

God has called us to live above that. I know that it is not easy, trust me, I know. But it is not impossible.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/27/why-young-christians-arent-waiting-anymore/

I may be a little cynical

In today's world it can be easy to think that marriage has become an outdated ritual, especially given that very few even take it seriously anymore. With the lack of biblical marriages and the ease of divorce in our country it is just as easy to get out of a marriage as it is to get into one. Celebrities don't help this problem either. I bet you can name at least 2 celebrities that got married and then got divorced in less than a year, some even less than 6 months. Here are a few that I came up with:

Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries' famous 72 day marriage.

Sinead O'Connor, 18 days.

Ali Landry and Mario Lopez, 2 weeks.

Britney Spears and Jason Allen Alexander only lasted 55 hours.

 What is happening? Marriage used to be one of the most stable things in our world. People got married young and stayed married until they died. I'm sure there are reasons why this has happened, some of which include arranged marriages, cultures that did not allow divorce, and fear of social rejection. But now divorce is commonplace. I would be willing to bet that in the very near future people will have no hope of celebrating a 50th anniversary, or even a 30th.

What are we teaching the generations to come about love and marriage? Are we teaching them that love perseveres about all odds? Or are we teaching them that when things get tough it is best to just give up? Do we stick it out when things are not fun, even when choosing to love someone seems impossible? Or are we teaching them that you can easily fall out of love with someone and there is nothing you can do about it?

Some people are harder to love than others, but should that stop us? Remember that each of us is hard to love for someone, but don't you want them to love you anyway, even when you don't deserve it or when it is hard?

Our world is making a mockery of marriage, I think it is time for those that follow Christ to reclaim marriage for what it was meant to be, and stop perpetrating this ungodly practice.

When everyone's shoes suddenly become very interesting

I know you have seen this happen, and probably done it yourself from time to time. I know that most people have sat in a class that they really didn't want to be in, or at some kind of show that required audience participation, and as soon as the teacher asks a question everyone's eyes suddenly hit the floor. If you don't make eye contact they won't pick you right? I feel like this happens with followers of Christ a lot! I was listening to a podcast recently where a panel of women spoke to a large group of college females. She was talking about her battle to finally get to the place when she could tell God she was going to be okay if she was single for the rest of her life. She said that she was afraid that God would pick her if she volunteered. But if she stared at the floor and didn't make eye contact with God (which you probably can't because I'm pretty sure you would die, or your head would explode or something!) she would be picked for sure and be sentenced to a life of hard singleness.

This is a hard truth that God has been pushing into my consciousness little by little for the past few weeks and if I'm being honest it scares me out of my mind! At one point in my life, I was completely sold out to the idea that I could be content to be single, but I am not sure what happened because I can't get myself back into that headspace for some reason. I see the advantages of being single and being able to serve God in any way that He asks. But my heart yearns for a husband that I can serve along side in ministry. I am afraid to say to God that I volunteer to be single the rest of my life and be content to serve Him alone, but I'm terrified He will take me seriously and actually pick me.

I don't have the answer for this, just something I wanted to get out of the cave that is my brain.