It's not Mine Anyway

We were at a wedding yesterday. As always, my pen was writing in my head all during the ceremony. I was impressed with the emphasis put on how marriage is a picture of Christ and his bride. It was a moment of worship when I realized how love has changed in my heart and mind compared to my thinking of all those years ago when I first fell in love with my husband.

 Love, when I first found it, was the ultimate. It was 'I have found my final resting place',' my soul is content to dwell here place', and 'I was lost, but now am found place'. All my gaps were filled, all the empty was gone. Praise God, we at least have that gift while love is new and untested.

And praise God for the tests that come. Those tests have a way of ripping away all the false security like nobody's business. They help to once again see gaps in our hearts and feel the void and pain of real living. We are forced to take a closer look at The Only One Who Can be the filler, peace, and joy in our lives.

I tried to hang on to my first love. I thought it would be terrible to let it go, to become OK with blah. I thought security was being able to predict what love would bring. I thought love could only bring goodness and ease of pain and suffering. I found that true love is not reactionary, rather it is unconditional. True love is far more stable than my feelings or emotions. True love embraces hardships, pain, and suffering. It is not wimpy, it is what carries you through storms of life, upheavals, and the unpredictable.

Loving another has been my teacher about so much in life. You love another well, when you love by laying aside your own desires and dreams. You love like Christ when you care more about the needs of your husband/wife, than your own. You are loving truly when you know that giving up your will is more important because it portrays Christ love for us, His bride. When you put that idea first, you can endure grouchiness, illness, and selfishness.

We learn to love best when we give it away; when we remember to love others as Christ loves us.  Love is not mine to keep. Love was made to give away. Love was made for showing Christ to others. Love was made for me to lose myself while finding Christ.

The beautiful words: Love beareth all things, endureth all things. hopeth all things, those words carry me through. They are filled with stability, strength, and faith in Jesus