On God, love, and purity

My heart pitter-patters as I skim through the pages, once again, of the book that affirmed my complete surrender ten years ago just prior to the time I met my husband. Leslie's words ring so true...

There was a glimmer of hope when I understood that the Author of romance actually wanted to write my love story. And yet the hope was instantly clouded by doubt and fear. Could God really do this without my brilliant input? Even though I had messed up my love life so far, I was pretty sure I still had way more insight into the finer things in life - like love, sex, dating, and marriage - than someone as old (and seemingly outdated) as God. What if He butchered the whole thing...Could I actually trust Him? Would He really take an active role in my love life? Would He lead and guide? And of even more concern to me was the question, would He lead me where I did not want to go? ~Leslie Ludy

Looking  back, I laugh at such a thought. That was before I learned what a true romantic God is. If I had only known what He had planned for me...I never would have doubted for a minute! ~Leslie Ludy

Oh, I can relate. I remember as an adolescent observing a very nice guy whom I had absolutely no romantic interest in and fearing, what if that was the guy that I would end up marrying one day. No offense to him, but it horrified me. As I began to date, an underlying message within determined that I knew what I was looking for and I would settle for no less. I was calling the shots. Sounded pretty good. The problem was that I didn't really know what I was looking for. I became discouraged, lowering my standards with each heartbreak and failed relationship. As the story goes, God knew. And in my full surrender to Him, He gave me the very thing that my heart skips a beat over as I retell it.

When we understand, even remotely, the love of God and His desires for each of our lives, we are changed. No longer will we ask for the rules so we can attain the bare minimum but, will go to great lengths to bring joy to the heart of God.

If we are asked to wait for something our heart desires, there is a reason.

If you desire a beautiful God-written love story, your time will be far better spent cultivating your relationship with Christ than searching the Internet or the local coffee shops for good-looking potentials. If you really learn to trust Him, understand His heart, and recognize His voice, then you will be able to recognize His fingerprints when He begins to write your love story.~Leslie Ludy

When God brought my husband into my life, it wasn't so much the fact that it was only a month after I fully surrendered my love life to God, as it was the fact that He had been preparing me for something that He could only offer me once I fully surrendered that part of my life to Him.

The message my story brings and this book affirms is that it's really all about God preparing us for that ultimate romance that we discover first with Him.

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:4

Whether it be an adolescent, who has many years of preparation ahead - one who may have made mistakes already, or an adult who has been down the same road one too many times, God must become our first love in order for it all to fall into place.

First I learned to lean on my relationship with Christ for my hope, joy, and security, rather than trying to find those things in a romantic relationship. Eric is an incredible husband, but he is also human. If I had gone into my relationship with him looking for all my emotional needs to be met, I would have been disappointed.~ Leslie Ludy  

We live in a world that will tell us we know what is best for ourselves and that if two people love each other, that is enough for a couple to express it intimately. It's a lie. Sadly, we even believe that as parents for our own children. Why? Maybe it is because we don't believe the alternative exists. We see our own imperfect stories, and although we may hope for a more pure and ideal love story for our own children's relationships, do we really believe it is possible? So, we side-step all that we know they are worth and we suffice the next best thing which, must be love. Just love.

The truth is, we don't truly understand love. When I surrendered my love life to God, I met a God who showed me that I knew nothing about what love was, and still don't, outside of Him. God is love. And He is holy. In order to understand God as love and holy, we must embrace purity.

Purity is more than just staying absence from sex before marriage. I strive toward purity everyday as a woman, wife, and mother.

...purity doesn't mean suppressing sexuality prior to marriage. Living in real purity means allowing the Spirit of God to overtake your life to the point where you are no longer living to feed the selfish craving of your flesh. It means being far more consumed with honoring God and your future spouse than with fulfilling the demands of your selfish desires. ~Eric Ludy

Purity is not merely the absence of sexual indulgence, but the presence of God's Spirit in every dimension of our life. ~Eric Ludy

It's much like pursuing a healthy lifestyle verses dieting for one particular motive...to lose weight. A good motive but, it's the healthy lifestyle - eating well and exercising - that sustains the healthy weight as just one of the benefits. In addition, other benefits may be better skin, hair, nails, and overall health - and ultimately we live longer. When it is a way of life, healthy living is not a drudgery. It is not a chore. To the contrary, the more we feed our bodies good, wholesome foods, the more active we are, the more we crave it. And we don't just throw in the towel because we blew it one day and ate a bowl of ice cream.

Purity infiltrates our entire life.


When purity is the goal, it is not a drudgery, burden or chore. To the contrary, as we feed our soul truth and the power of God's word - the more we live it - the more we crave it. The more we crave Him.

Sadly, impurity works in much the same way. The more we access it, the more we crave, the more it intoxicates our life.

Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared? Proverbs 6:27-28

The hope is in the fact that our lives are made pure in an instant through Jesus Christ. When we turn and stand humbly before the Father in confession, He sees, through the blood of Jesus, His perfection - pure and innocent.

This is a gift.


This is an honor.


This is the miracle our Savior offers when we come before Him in full surrender of our lives.

 Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 

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She Speaks Conference is about women connecting the hearts of women to the heart of our Father God. My heart is to serve Him and His daughters, as He leads. If that is yours, enter here, for a chance to win a scholarship to go to the She Speaks Conference July 22-24th.

MMM ~ Sacrificial love

I offer you this Monday a marriage quote to reflect on.

When a husband daily lays down his life for his wife, considers her needs above his own, and sacrifices his own agenda in order to be sensitive to her, he will truly become the man that she desires above any other. When a wife builds her existence around serving her husband, meeting his needs, and thinking of his good above her own, her man will respond with a radical adoration for her alone. It's a pattern that begins long before the wedding day... ~Eric Ludy

May we impress upon our own long before they are ready for marriage, that this action is an instrumental precursor to a healthy marriage and can be readily identified by the laying down of our own selfish wants and honoring God in our lives and dating relationships.

May practicing this kind of love within your marriage bless you abundantly!

Five Minute Friday: Waking Up

I'm joining the challenge to write for 5 minutes with the writing prompt: waking up.


Go.

I savor waking up to my fresh brewed coffee and devotion. My taste buds crave the creamy fresh bean coffee and my soul craves a fresh Word from my pocket book bible. This is the way I start my day. Maybe the only time I get for myself and alone time with God in a day. Imperative to a good start on my day.

Then there is the gift of waking up my children. My first born, now in kindergarten, wakes up first and I snuggle with him over a devotion each morning. Sacred time. Our time. Maybe the only time I will snuggle with him in the day. Imperative to a good start on his day.


The rest wake up to life going already...and I sigh...there are still three more.


Lord, grant me that sacred time with each one.


Stop.


I am happy to join Five Minute Friday for the first time with Lisa-Jo over at The Gypsy Mama. Come, join in, and link up!

WFW - Stand Firm

You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.'"


The story continues that when King Jehoshophat heard those words, he bowed with his face to the ground and all of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD.  The next morning King Jehoshophat told his troops to have faith and they will be upheld...successful. He appointed people to sing praise to the LORD as they went out at the head of the army. When they began to sing and praise, their enemies became confused and fought each other. (I love this) When the men of Judah looked on toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground. They won the battle without lifting one finger. 


I need this. Oh, how I need this. It reminds me that my hope is in the Lord - completely. It reminds me that it is NOT in my own strength that I succeed. It reminds me that only when I surrender He takes up the battle and fights for me.


Take your position. Stand firm. And watch how He will uphold and deliver you. 

Link up today with WFW over at Internet Cafe Devotions

My splurge

Our family just got back from a vacation in Washington visiting my husband's parents over our oldest sons school spring break. It was lovely. I was able to relax, shop a little, breathe. It's always a nice break when grandma and grandpa add up to four on four rather than the usual two on four with my husband and I and our four children. And our children love their time with grandma and grandpa!

We spent a couple of days in Seattle, WA. We went to the Children's Museum - since apparently the Science Center is closed on Tuesdays. But, that would have been our third time there and we had never been to the other so it worked out! Plus, touring the Science Center would have just rubbed our noses in the fact that we were there just three days shy of the Star Wars display!

That evening, my husband took my oldest son (seven) to a Seattle Sounders soccer game with my son's uncle and grandpa (boy time). The next day we all went to the Aquatic Center.

But, not before I went shopping!

Okay, so I am a clearance rack girl. I love a bargain! However, certain things I will spend money on, like shoes and jeans - but, I keep it under $100, much closer to $50.Yes, that is being spendy for me.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines splurge as, "to indulge oneself extravagantly."  I don't splurge. I don't get manicures and pedicures, rarely visit a spa for a massage, I don't buy a lot of accessories, and I definitely don't buy designer clothes.

So, hopefully you will be able to appreciate it when I say, Wednesday morning my mother-in-law and I made a b-line from our hotel down town Seattle to the closest Starbucks just up the street, then headed directly to the second floor of Nordstroms, on a mission to find a pair of designer jeans. I feel a little guilty and frivolous typing that, but it was absolutely delightful. I was 100% waited on by a knowledgeable sales person. I never left the dressing room.  And the size of jean that I thought I was? Let's just say I would have never picked out the right designer jean for myself. I'll admit, I'm a little nervous. I hope they still fit I still love them when they come in the mail tailored to my height - and non-refundable.

A style similar to these

It felt good to splurge. I think a hard-working mom needs to do that every now and then. I know that makes me sound deserving, which is not the case really and not everything that feels good is good or necessarily responsible. But, it's the kind of good that feels like I accomplished something.

I have been wanting a good jean for some time now and determined I was willing spend the bucks. A plan that, for me, could only be achieved in-store, not on-line, as I must try jeans on and the closest Nordstroms is approximately 400 miles away. So, three years and two babies later we're in Seattle and I decide to go for it!

Yes, a tasteful, extravagant indulgence - and I loved every second of it!

WFW - Hiding Place

"You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble
   and surround me with songs of deliverance." Psalm 32:7

I can only imagine the soundtrack being played over my life!

Join me this week for Word Filled Wednesday over at Internet Cafe Devotions!

                                                    

MMM -Safe Harbor

I leave you this Monday some food for thought...may we stop a moment and truly be grateful for the spouse we have been honored to love for better, for worse.

"We must never be naive enough to think of marriage as a safe harbor from the Fall...

The deepest struggles of life will occur in the most primary relationship affected by the Fall: marriage.

-Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III

Set Apart

A can of soda poured into a tall glass, fizzles to the rim then slowly settles. The longer it sets - the more lukewarm it becomes - the flatter the substance is to the taste buds. What started out like an explosion settles into a non-refreshing sugary substance. A substance that no longer stands out as something that tastes good.

Today, right now, this moment begs the question - have we settled into mediocre?

Have we found, once again, that comfortable place where the core of our existence is silenced? I don't mean whether or not we are vocal. I mean, do we blend in just enough so that we are not questioned by our differences; so that we feel no surge to make a difference? Is the spark, that was once ignited, shining a noticeable light; forcing our energy upward?

Must we step out and be seen - set apart from the multitudes?

Isaiah 43:7 says that we were created for His glory.

Why do we settle like the fizzling of a freshly poured soda quieting itself into the syrupy beverage (the popular beverage, that some consider "pure death," or at the very least, when consumed over and over, is considered "detrimental to the body.")?

Are we settling into the comforts of our surroundings? Could taking a sip of that complacency over and over again be detrimental to us, too? Over time could our spirits become flat-lined by a lukewarm faith?

Are we not meant to bubble over by the Spirit's awaking? To drink from His cup, which is life?

"Taste and see that the LORD is good..." Psalm 34:8

Will we say, " For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes..."? Romans 1:16

Will we stand out like a fresh can of soda bubbling over the rim of it's glass, overflowing into a mess - a foolish, worthy mess?

What sets you apart?

What is God igniting in you?

How is your life bubbling over and bringing Him glory?

WFW - Do not worry

May you and I keep our eyes on Christ this day... 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; 

or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body 

more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or 

store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much 

more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to 

your life?

   

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. 

They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his 

splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of 

the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not 

much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall 

we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run 

after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be 

given to you as well. 

 Matthew 6:25-33

I'm linking up with Internet Cafe Devotions today for Word Filled Wednesday. Come join in!