Category: 10 Days to Falling in Love

You know the feeling.  It starts off with a first glance, then a smile, then a word.  Soon his every move leads you into a fantasy world of romance and dates and, yes, a wedding.  Your mind won’t let you concentrate on anything else.  You talk about him nonstop to the point where your friends begin to give you ultimatums.  Every day when your phone beeps with news of a text, you jump, wondering if it’s him.  Every time it rings you go through this whole scenario of whether you should answer it or make him work a little harder.  You aren’t supposed to be too available, right?

He finally asks you out on a date, and the intensity of your focus becomes even more deliberate.  What does he think about me?  Did I say the wrong thing?  Maybe I should act this way next time.  Am I being too eager?  You want him to like you, and you really want him to fall in love with you.

It moves on from there through dating and engagement.  You are inseparable and your total concern is for him and not yourself.  You want to see him smile and laugh and experience peace in your presence.  You begin to prove what a wonderful wife you’re going to be, and the honeymoon phase sets in.  Nothing can separate your love.

Then true love flourishes and becomes what it was created to be.  The love that says you will be patient with this person when they drive you absolutely out of your mind.  Or you’ll take care of this person when they are laying in the bed chronically ill.  Or you will lay down everything you wanted for your life because there is a higher call now, and you must answer it.

What if we fell in love with Jesus in the same way we do with with boys we date and the men we marry?

We tend to think that a relationship with Jesus is mystical or imaginary because we cannot see Him physically in the flesh.  However, Falling in Love with Jesus is similar to falling in love with anyone else.  The main difference is that He already loves you passionately, uncontrollably, and madly.  You don’t have to try to win him over like we do in the romantic relationships in our lives.  He is already won, and He is just waiting to win you too.

Some days, I am madly in love with Jesus.  I say “some” because I am human. There are days and even seasons in my life when my love for Him has waned. How do I know I’m in love with Him? Because I have similar feelings for him that I have for my husband – now and when we were dating.

I look forward to reading my Bible and crave that time I get to learn more about Him.  I find myself talking to Him regularly, at times even constantly, throughout the day as I am completely my daily tasks.  Thoughts come into my mind or are heard from a friend that are completely out of my nature and character, and I know it is Him.  When I get into my car my heart is full of love when I hear music exclaiming His praises.  My soul mourns for sin so deeply that at times I just bust into tears and beg Him to come back to get us.

Today let’s begin Falling in Love with Jesus in the similar way we fall in love with other people in our lives.  He died on the Cross so that we could know Him and spend eternity with Him.

The Cross is His love letter to us.  Today begin writing your love letter to Him.

May I pray for you?

Dear Jesus, we love you.  We love you, Lord, not because you fill our lives with blessings, but because of who you are.  Today is known as the “Love Day” in our culture, but we know that we don’t need a special day to remember your love for us or to fall more in love with you.  Your love is available every day.  Lord, I pray for each woman who reads these words today.  I ask you to protect her from the lies that the enemy may try to use today to draw her away from your love.  Remind her, Lord, that her worth, security, and beauty, is firm in you and you alone regardless of her circumstances.  Help her to feel your love today.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.

Happy Valentine’s Day, sweet friends!!  Praying for you today!!

Fall in Love with Your Life {and Plan a Party} :: Day 1
In this post I tell you how I threw a Valentine’s Day party for myself and all of my single girlfriends, and I show you how you can plan your own! (Plus there’s a link-up!)

Fall in Love with Your Family :: Day 2

Fall in Love with Your Friends :: Day 3

Fall in Love with Those in Need :: Day 4

Fall in Love with Creation :: Day 5

Fall in Love with Your Purpose :: Day 6

Fall in Love with Your Blessings :: Day 7

Fall in Love with Hope :: Day 8

Fall in Love with Peace :: Day 9

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” Isaiah 26:3

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

This is the ninth day of a ten day series “Falling in Love“. Read the previous posts by clicking below.

Fall in Love with Your Life {and Plan a Party} :: Day 1
In this post I tell you how I threw a Valentine’s Day party for myself and all of my single girlfriends, and I show you how you can plan your own! (Plus there’s a link-up!)

Fall in Love with Your Family :: Day 2

Fall in Love with Your Friends :: Day 3

Fall in Love with Those in Need :: Day 4

Fall in Love with Creation :: Day 5

Fall in Love with Your Purpose :: Day 6

Fall in Love with Your Blessings :: Day 7

Fall in Love with Hope :: Day 8

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

How do these words leave you feeling?

Do you feel like you’ve read them hundreds of times, and you want so desperately to believe them, but with each year that passes the words themselves become a hope – a hope that you will one day believe them.

The Lord knows His plans because He is already there.  There in your future, preparing and planning.  This is your hope.  Hope that He has not forgotten.

Just about a month ago I had a temper tantrum in the middle of the Chick-fil-A parking lot.  Yes, a full on, blown out, temper tantrum – with tears.  How embarrassed am I?  And it was over oatmeal of all things.

We got there at 10:25, and the line was almost out the door.  But we were in the door before 10:30, right? And surely they make a few extras so that the breakfast cut-off time isn’t right at 10:30.  Besides, I didn’t even want a biscuit.  I just wanted oatmeal.

We were on our way home from a weekend in the mountains.  John wasn’t thrilled about stopping anyway, so when he saw the line was long he was being super patient and very sweet already.  So we stood in the line for five minutes waiting.  When I got up to the counter I placed my order of oatmeal – with granola and brown sugar – or whatever it comes with.  The young girl not-so politely – well, that’s not true, she was probably polite  – said, “Breakfast has ended.”

It was 10:31.  I said, “You don’t have any breakfast food left?” She replied, “No, breakfast has ended.” “You mean you can’t make any oatmeal?” I replied back with a little bit of attitude. “No” , she said, “there is not any more.  Would you like something else?”

“No, all I wanted was oatmeal.”   I stormed out the door making it clear I was unhappy, marched into parking lot, and started crying – before I called the manager back on my cell phone.

John just looked at me.

Isn’t that typical, though, of how we act sometimes when we forget our blessings and instead demand our way?  Hopefully none of you act like a two-year old like I apparently do, but even in our minds we often pout to God when we don’t get our way.

Today we are Falling in Love with Our Blessings, and how vast they are!

No matter how low or sad or desperate your circumstances, you are still very blessed.

Have you considered any of these blessing today?

• the heart that is pumping in your chest right now
• the legs that carry you from one place to another
• that small toe that gives you balance
• the eyes that allow you so see God’s creation
• living in the United States
• the food you ate today and the clean water you drank
• the last breath you just took
• the Cross that gives you a home – forever

Yes, some of these seem almost silly to think about because we take them for granted so often, but today let’s think about them, and let’s Fall in Love with Our Blessings!

This is the seventh day of a ten day series “Falling in Love“. Read the previous posts by clicking below, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway that ends on Tuesday, February 14th!  On Valentine’s Day I will announce the winner!  As a way to bless you, my readers, on the Fall in Love journey!

Fall in Love with Your Life {and Plan a Party} :: Day 1
In this post I tell you how I threw a Valentine’s Day party for myself and all of my single girlfriends, and I show you how you can plan your own! (Plus there’s a link-up!)

Fall in Love with Your Family :: Day 2

Fall in Love with Your Friends :: Day 3

Fall in Love with Those in Need :: Day 4

Fall in Love with Creation :: Day 5

Fall in Love with Your Purpose {And enter a GIVEAWAY from Holley Gerth!!} :: Day 6
Enter to win God’s Heart for You by Holley Gerth!!  I have just started reading it, and am already in awe of how God is speaking to me through it!

My struggle with purpose started when I was a single woman.  If you asked me what I wanted to “be when I grew up” I told you a wife and a mother.  Period.  The end.  No more questions asked.  The answer was the same at ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and now thirty-five.

There is no doubt that God put these desires in me.  They never went away even when I asked for him to change them.  But it’s hard to be a wife and mother without a husband and children, and that I had no control over. I felt like a displaced wanderer not really knowing who I was or what I was supposed to be doing.  My reality kept me in a box from being who I was created to be.

I even chose my degrees based on wanting to be a wife and mother.  I became a teacher with the logic that teachers are home at 3:30 and have summers off.  Little did I know that teachers are rarely home before 5:00 and then bring work home.  It’s the same type job as any other.  Plus little prayer went into my choice of profession, and I didn’t consider things like my personality type or spiritual gifts or what God wanted me to do.  So for thirteen years now I’ve been in a job that I suspect God would not have originally chosen for me had I asked him.

Countless days these words would mutter inside my head, “What is my purpose?  Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing?  I have a job that is not me, I am alone, and I have no one to love and take care of. God, what is my purpose?”

I know I’m not alone in this because I get emails from all of you, single friends, and you say the same thing.  Your heart yearns to be a homemaker, and being single makes you feel stifled and pushed down, unable to fulfill the desires in your heart.

This past year my struggle with purpose came to an all time rock bottom.  Even though I am married, I still do not know what I’m supposed to be doing.  I know teaching isn’t it.  And we do not have children.  So there are still hollow places in my heart.

But God began to teach me about purpose through these ten words that hang on our refrigerator.  They’ve hung there for a while, but only recently have I grasped them.  I wrote them on this index card after hearing a pastor say them in a sermon one time.  It’s funny how God uses his wisdom when we’re ready for it.

Notice the two words “to be”.  My purpose is “to be” not “to do”. I worry and ponder what I am supposed to be “doing” in my life – serving a husband, changing diapers, teaching – when instead God wants me to just “be” in whatever life circumstance I am in so that my life can point others to Him.  As Christians isn’t that ultimately our only purpose anyway? To bring people to Christ? Whether it’s our family, friends, coworkers, or strangers on the street?

I want an easy answer.  I want everything I want to be here and now.  But I’m afraid that even then I may miss my true purpose unless I realize what it is now.

Sweet single friends, your purpose is “to be” in order to bridge a way Jesus.  Meditate on that today, and Fall in Love with Your Purpose.

Fall in Love with Those in Need :: Day 4