Guest Author 5 Minute Read It is a beautiful summer’s day many years ago, the sun shining shimmery-hot and the world vividly green and rich.
She’s four years old and all dressed up in a gingham blue checked dress, her brown hair pretty and pulled back in a bow. Her brothers are dressed up, too, as is fitting for such an important occasion.
For someone is getting married today.
It’s the first time she’s been to a wedding and it is so exciting.
Gretchen Louise 4 Minute Read I read a lot of books about relationships in my late teens and early twenties. Enough to know that they aren’t all helpful and encouraging. And they most definitely are not all must-reads. When I got married, there were the few books I didn’t pack — the ones I kept handy for reference as I…
Elisabeth Allen 7 Minute Read I love reading. Books are beautiful – the covers, the pages, the words. The smell of the paper and the ink, too. And then there’s the story!
But what’s a girl to read? The choice of books is vast. And although it’s tempting to judge a book by it’s cover and read a book that displays a gorgeous picture or an intriguing title, that’s not always wise—not for a girl who loves Jesus.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life…”
Chantel 4 Minute Read Just over two years ago, Scott and I hiked to a beautiful waterfall here in Tennessee and sat up together under the trees — talking, soaking up the view, and enjoying being together again at long last. It was then that Scott put into words what our hearts had been saying for a while, and…
Jessica Telian 4 Minute Read During my teenage years, I read a lot of courtship books. Joshua Harris. Eric and Leslie Ludy. Elisabeth Elliot. You name it. If it was about courtship, I probably read it.
In and of itself, reading those courtship books was not a bad thing. Even though I already knew beforehand that I wasn’t going to “date” casually, and that any relationship I would get into would need to be moving the direction of marriage, reading and knowing that there were others out there who believed the same as I did was encouraging.
However, a steady diet of those type of books during the years when I wasn’t courting–and therefore had nothing to apply what I was reading to–ended up not being a good thing. It essentially caused me to put God in a box in regard to what makes a relationship that is glorifying to Him…
Jessica Telian 3 Minute Read Before I was married, I had all these grand ideas about how I would be such a wonderful wife. The house would always be as clean as possible, I would always make meals from scratch, I would make sure the laundry hamper was never overflowing. I could maybe fudge on some of them if I was deathly ill or something, but other than then, I would work hard to be a good wife and make sure that all that was done.
Chantel 6 Minute Read Marriage is worth waiting for. I understand it so much more clearly now than I did before, and each day I see how much I must learn, how unskilled I am in some areas, and how grateful I am for the chances I had to cultivate others. I treasure the advice of those who have…
Jessica Telian 4 Minute Read In the past months, as I’ve talked with different single sisters in Christ, the conversations have made me wonder about certain concepts that are being communicated to Christian young people. Concepts of what is the “best” and most Christ-honoring way to go about relationships. Though these girls were all in different situations and were doing their best to go about their romantic relationships in a way that glorified God, there was a common theme…all of them felt guilty that they supposedly weren’t remaining “emotionally pure”.
Chantel 6 Minute Read It’s never easy to be far from the person you are learning to love. In fact, I believe most of us would agree that to a heart that loves, time and distance can seem like eternity and space–both equally as disagreeable. And yet, distance isn’t the curse it sometime seems to be. Hidden in all…
Gretchen Louise 3 Minute Read “You know what they say,” people would tell me. “‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’…” I’d smile, for in fact, it was the way I often comforted myself in those years of being hundreds of miles apart from the man I wanted to marry. “…Fonder for someone else!” They’d often add. Teasingly, of course. Yet…
Theresa 3 Minute Read I wanted so much to be in a relationship when I first read Elyse Fitzpatrick’s book Because He Loves Me last year. From where I stood, it seemed like if only I could have a man of my own, then my life would suddenly become perfect. Whether our treasured idol is comfort, romance, respect, security,…
Gretchen Louise 21 Minute Read Sometimes, beauty can only be seen in retrospect. And that’s especially true when it comes to the beauty of separation. My husband and I spent the entirety of our courtship living 500 miles apart. We knew it was a good thing then. But now, almost 4 years into the delicious togetherness of married life, we know…
The End.
The End.