Perfect Love
Guess what?!? Another love post! Yay!!!!
Okay, so my boyfriend, whose name is Jordan, and I are both super into our faith and very into each other. It's so amazing. We are able to challenge each other to grow in our devotion to the Lord and to become the best versions of ourselves, all the while falling deeper in love with each other. I can't even begin to explain how much of a blessing that is. He and I have decided to create our relationship with Christ at the center, which is something every couple is called to do. Really, a marriage (starting with dating) is a threesome: God, the man, and the woman. That said, Jordan and I came up with the idea to do a sort of mini retreat. We called it "Alignment of Devotion."
This mini retreat is to make certain that we are following God's plan for us as a couple and keeping Him at the center of our relationship and of our lives as individuals. In addition to using our time for intensive prayer, we prayed for the intercession of certain saints and had specific prayers and intentions unique to our relationship. We took an entire 24 hour period off from communication of any kind with each other, and we also took the day off from social media. This was so that we could focus on praying about aligning our wills, our devotions, to the Lord. Not to say we were straying, but we both felt that doing this would be beneficial for us in many ways. Let's just say that we greatly underestimated the effect it would have on us.
We all have our secrets. Humans are imperfect creatures, all of whom have scars in one form or another. During this retreat, I felt the Lord calling me to tell my boyfriend about some of my scars. I heard His voice whispering in my heart. Trust Me. It is time. Tell him. Well, okay God. You know best! It's crazy because for years I was scared to tell anyone about my brokenness. I was terrified. But when I heard the Lord calling me, I felt peace. It wasn't what I was expecting to feel, but He showered me with this peace that is becoming a comforting familiarity in my life. 1st John 4:18 says that "[t]here is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear..." God's perfect love for me drove out the fear I may have had, and did have for a moment, and filled me with His peace!
Throughout our retreat, my man and I had no contact whatsoever. It was really cool to talk to him afterward and to hear how he thought it went. The crazy thing is that during our retreat, he felt called by God to show me his scars, too. So, we did. It was quite possibly the scariest thing either of us have ever done! It was also extremely rewarding. I have more peace in this relationship than ever before, and I didn't know that was possible. It takes an insane amount of courage and strength to show the person you love just how broken you are. Nobody is perfect. We are all broken people with baggage of some kind. But God takes all of it and uses it to make us stronger. I feel so much peace after telling Jordan what God told me to tell Him. And he feels the same way after telling me. It's easy to think that when you show someone your scars, they'll look at you differently, treat you differently, or even that their feelings for you will change. What I have found is that they will only love you more.
Real love, perfect love, does not get turned off. It is not deterred by faults or scars. Instead, the flame only gets brighter, it kisses the scars and sees faults as merely ways to improve and to become a better person rather than a detriment to the person themselves. The Lord loves us that way. His love for us only gets stronger as time goes on. It is fearless! When we are filled with His love, we can perfectly love those in our lives. It is through His love that I love my boyfriend and through His love that he loves me back. We see each others' brokenness and love each other through it. It's scary to go through hard times, to promise yourself to someone for life, to put yourself out there and to be vulnerable. But that's what we do as Christians. We are vulnerable, we have hard times in this world, we often stand alone against society, and we pledge ourselves to the God of the Universe. But the perfect love He has for us and that we are called to have for Him drives out fear.
When you are loved by the God of all Creation, and you are, you in turn love with a powerful, beautiful, perfect love.
Okay, so my boyfriend, whose name is Jordan, and I are both super into our faith and very into each other. It's so amazing. We are able to challenge each other to grow in our devotion to the Lord and to become the best versions of ourselves, all the while falling deeper in love with each other. I can't even begin to explain how much of a blessing that is. He and I have decided to create our relationship with Christ at the center, which is something every couple is called to do. Really, a marriage (starting with dating) is a threesome: God, the man, and the woman. That said, Jordan and I came up with the idea to do a sort of mini retreat. We called it "Alignment of Devotion."
This mini retreat is to make certain that we are following God's plan for us as a couple and keeping Him at the center of our relationship and of our lives as individuals. In addition to using our time for intensive prayer, we prayed for the intercession of certain saints and had specific prayers and intentions unique to our relationship. We took an entire 24 hour period off from communication of any kind with each other, and we also took the day off from social media. This was so that we could focus on praying about aligning our wills, our devotions, to the Lord. Not to say we were straying, but we both felt that doing this would be beneficial for us in many ways. Let's just say that we greatly underestimated the effect it would have on us.
We all have our secrets. Humans are imperfect creatures, all of whom have scars in one form or another. During this retreat, I felt the Lord calling me to tell my boyfriend about some of my scars. I heard His voice whispering in my heart. Trust Me. It is time. Tell him. Well, okay God. You know best! It's crazy because for years I was scared to tell anyone about my brokenness. I was terrified. But when I heard the Lord calling me, I felt peace. It wasn't what I was expecting to feel, but He showered me with this peace that is becoming a comforting familiarity in my life. 1st John 4:18 says that "[t]here is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear..." God's perfect love for me drove out the fear I may have had, and did have for a moment, and filled me with His peace!
Throughout our retreat, my man and I had no contact whatsoever. It was really cool to talk to him afterward and to hear how he thought it went. The crazy thing is that during our retreat, he felt called by God to show me his scars, too. So, we did. It was quite possibly the scariest thing either of us have ever done! It was also extremely rewarding. I have more peace in this relationship than ever before, and I didn't know that was possible. It takes an insane amount of courage and strength to show the person you love just how broken you are. Nobody is perfect. We are all broken people with baggage of some kind. But God takes all of it and uses it to make us stronger. I feel so much peace after telling Jordan what God told me to tell Him. And he feels the same way after telling me. It's easy to think that when you show someone your scars, they'll look at you differently, treat you differently, or even that their feelings for you will change. What I have found is that they will only love you more.
Real love, perfect love, does not get turned off. It is not deterred by faults or scars. Instead, the flame only gets brighter, it kisses the scars and sees faults as merely ways to improve and to become a better person rather than a detriment to the person themselves. The Lord loves us that way. His love for us only gets stronger as time goes on. It is fearless! When we are filled with His love, we can perfectly love those in our lives. It is through His love that I love my boyfriend and through His love that he loves me back. We see each others' brokenness and love each other through it. It's scary to go through hard times, to promise yourself to someone for life, to put yourself out there and to be vulnerable. But that's what we do as Christians. We are vulnerable, we have hard times in this world, we often stand alone against society, and we pledge ourselves to the God of the Universe. But the perfect love He has for us and that we are called to have for Him drives out fear.
When you are loved by the God of all Creation, and you are, you in turn love with a powerful, beautiful, perfect love.
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