Category Archives: Courtship

Is He the One for Me?

Is he the one for me?

I have been asked this question a few times about my own love experience and decided to answer with a blog post.

“How did you know that he/she was the one for you?”

When I asked my husband this question, he answered…

“You can feel when something is real. You can’t make something phony, fit. When it’s real, it just fits.”

A lot of Christian singles have a check list. My husband and I had one too. I personally do not believe there is anything wrong with having a list, but you have to be careful how you develop it and how you let it govern your final decision to say, “I do”.

I agree with my husband when he says that there was a genuine connection between us. And although our lists were important to us, that connection superseded the list. Then, as it turns out, God saw to it that we just happened to fulfill each other’s lists as well! For us, most things just fell right in place.

There are no set rules or instructions to follow. The most important thing is to be led of God.   

Ultimately, the will of God plays the deciding factor.

Physical attraction is important but true love goes deeper than the skin. On our first date we went to dinner and afterwards, he took me on a tour of the church building where he pastors. When we arrived at his church, I watched him carefully. He walked across the pulpit and down the aisles. As he told me about the church, I could see his sincere love for the ministry beaming from his eyes. That moment revealed his heart and steadfast love for God and people. I found myself drawn to him by not only his look or his words, but by his actions also. He shined a reflection of what I desire to be as a person and child of God.

So after I asked myself, “Is he the one for me?”, I followed up with these questions.

1. Is his love for God sincere? What story does his actions tell?

2. Will he enhance and complement my life? Am I willing to do the same for him?

3. Is he afraid to do what is right?

4. Is he able and willing to love me as Christ loved the church? Keep in mind that Jesus gave His life for the church.

5. Does he take his burdens to God in prayer?

6. How does he measure up to my personal preferences?

7. Are the blessings of the Lord made manifest in our relationship?

8. Is he gracious?

9. Is he grateful?

10. Does his words build me up or tear me down?

These are just a few of the questions I evaluated based on what I knew what would be best for me and my life in Christ. 

Over all, there are no set rules to answer, “Is he the one for me?”  For me, I could answer positively to all of these questions on our first date. Yet still, to be confident in God’s final answer, it may take some time.  The answer could come in his action, a single moment, your prayer, or a simple word.

I believe that somehow and someway, God speaks. It’s up to us to be tuned in to hear His voice. He has the answers to all of our questions.

Final words from my husband…

“There’s no set of instructions…it’s not from without. It’s from within, and manifests without.”

 

God bless you in your courtship, dating, and waiting…

Love always,

Candra

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The Christian Man and the Cookie

I hadn’t heard sex referred to as the “cookie” until I read Steve Harvey’s book, “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man”. The book was a great read. It’s funny, entertaining, and it enlightened me as to how men think when it comes to relationships.

Harvey says that men need love, support, and the cookie.  No arguments here. Giving love and support are two things shared by many types of relationships and makes for a great foundation to a long and lasting relationship. Now, what about the cookie? That is a more delicate issue.

It is agreed that men want the cookie. Men need the cookie. Men love cookies.

There are some men who follow the 90-day rule or something similar. They’ll willingly wait 90 days for the cookie if they are serious about a woman. I suppose this is considered a respectable time frame. However God’s plan for courtship and marriage ventures into another direction. There are no 90, 100, or even 365 day waiting periods for having sex before marriage. God planned for sex to take part within marriage, not without.

So if men have to have the cookie, what are Christian women to do?

Well, I am excited to celebrate that as Christian women we do not have to compromise our convictions. Not all men are willing to let down Christian standards and personal convictions just to get the cookie. Not all men have a frightful lack of self-control. Many men today are planning and waiting until marriage before they have cookies. They are seriously in love with their women and their God.

The real Christian man does not want to dishonor his woman or damage her soul. He makes himself worthy of her tenderness and love. He pleases the Lord knowing God will bless and protect their union in return for his faithfulness.

Thank God for real men who love Jesus!

Some women say that they haven’t met any men like this. I admit the numbers seem mighty skinny, but God always has a people committed to serving Him. And some of those people are indeed men. They are real men who just happen to love Jesus. They have surrendered their all to the Lord and affirmed that their bodies are not their own, but are temples of God. And their love for God will lead them to honor a woman while dating.

Yes, he wants the cookie too… but not before it’s time.

It reminds me of one of my favorite passages of scripture.

“I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.” Song of Solomon 2:7  

Yet while these men have strong convictions, others do not. If a woman is willing to freely give away her cookies, there are men who will gladly indulge. They may not respect her, but they will take the cookie.  They may be conscious that she has lowered her standards, but they don’t question. He knows she will hate herself later because he is not going to commit long-term to her, but… he will take the cookie and flee. Sex doesn’t mean the woman is loved and it doesn’t mean marriage is pending.

Love and respect must first begin inside of us, right? There is a bad seed that gets planted in the mind of women. It grows into the theory that if I don’t give up the cookie he will get it from someone else. However, he may go get it from someone else anyway. I pray women everywhere love themselves enough to do what is best for their bodies and souls.

Remember, there are good, Christian, holy men out there who are different from the rest. They believe in the power of God’s Word and promises. They walk in the Spirit and are not led by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. They revere Christian women as God’s own and are noble with their love. Yes, they desire love, support, and the cookie. Nonetheless, they want the cookie when the time is right.

I’ve met them. I’ve heard their testimonies. And soon I will marry one of them.

They are men most precious and well worth waiting for.

Save the cookie until the wedding night and enjoy.

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Compromising My Relationship with God for a Man

This is somewhat of a repeat blog that I thought was worth posting again.

 

Several single Christian women have been there. Yes, even I considered it…hooking up with an unbeliever who rejects the gospel that you love. “Why?” some may ask. I suppose because being single can be so hard that we’d rather be married and unhappy than single and unhappy. I know…it makes no sense.

 

I never had any intentions on abandoning my service to God, and taking up with a man who didn’t believe. I had this idea that I could change him. I could be the spiritual influence he needs in his life. Now I know that all day long the Bible tells us not to be unequally yoked. But there is something about a lonely heart and a weary mind that leads us to believe foolishness.

 

God promised Abraham and Sarah that He would give them a child in their old age. But they just couldn’t let it go at that. They had to figure the situation out on their own because it seemed impossible. Well I had been single so long that it seemed impossible to find a single, loving, saved, attractive, funny, intelligent, responsible man of God. As the years passed and I went from my early twenties to mid-twenties, the pickens seem to get slim. It felt like going to a 12 hour sidewalk sale in the eleventh hour.

 Everything in your size and favorite colors are gone. So then you wonder to the 80% off rack and buy five Thanksgiving sweatshirts from 3 years ago just so you don’t feel defeated walking out with nothing. Well…okay…maybe only I do that. (Smile)

 

So, having a hard time trusting in the promises of God…even knowing how He did in fact blessed Sarah to give birth to Isaac…I tried to help God. And please be careful of the advice you get when it comes to dating and courtship. If you have the Spirit of God inside of you and you’re serious about obtaining eternal life, line up the advice you receive with the Word of God. If the advice is contrary, don’t follow it! I say this because others will want to help you help God.

 

The extent of my pursuit to have a relationship with an unbeliever went as far as a few dinners. I began to grow feelings for this person, but the Holy Ghost would not let me be settled with him. His thinking process, his beliefs, and his actions rubbed the Spirit of God in me the wrong way. Some choose to ignore this warning the Spirit gives. Then women end up getting pulled out of the church instead of pulling the man in. And if he does attend a few church services don’t start rejoicing yet. If he is not ready to give his life to the Lord, he may ask you to do some things in return. Things you know is not in God’s will for your life…and I’ll just leave it at that. It’s called compromise.

 

Realizing that the end result of this relationship would consist of me loving a man that doesn’t love God finally put the brakes on for me. If I gave my life and my time to this man with no hope for a future in Christ with him, I would end up hurt, alone, and separated from God. You can tell in the first few conversations you have with him whether or not he’s going to be real about God and the church.

 

And until he decides to get real, you better decide to get separated.

Be ye not unequally yoked.

 

Today I am much wiser and even more in love with Jesus Christ. So there’s no way I’d leave His goodness, faithfulness, love, and ability to make me happy every single day for anything. In due time, a man of God will join you in God’s goodness, faithfulness, love, and ability to make you happy every single day.

 

Don’t fret about the impossibility of God’s promise for you. When has He ever failed? Don’t worry about the slim pickens. We can only have one man anyway. So why do hundreds need to be available. God knows you and He knows how to reserve the man for you.

 

Safe in His will,

Miss Love In Waiting

 


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