* Update: Congratulations to Jodi for winning $25 to the (in)courage shop!
He was always around, a family friend.
When I was only seven, I knew he was the one for me.
Strong and gentle, good and true.
Later I questioned. Weren’t there more appealing options in the world?
I became distant. Broke his heart. But still he stayed.
One day I realized, there’s no better love.
I came back for good.
When I think of us now, it’s a jumble of memories, moments, good times and hard.
Sometimes I wonder how he puts up with me.
But he loves me, CRAZY loves me, in a way I can hardly understand.
When I think of all that’s best in me, I see him.
He’s chased my heart every step of my life.
This is my love story–
messy, glorious
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I am reading this post at close to 2 am – unable to sleep because my brain could not shut off. My love story started over about 2 hours ago. I needed to read this tonight. Thanks!
Alli – I praise God for your heart of surrender. Praying that you will find rest in the arms of Love.
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”
At the tender age of 6, I met Him. I chose to accept Him as my Savior in a sunday school class. I wanted that little new believers bible. It was shiny and red as I touched the engraved letters. However, the bible soon became dusty and years went by and the words were no longer life. I made every mistake my mom prayed that I wouldn’t make. Yet, in my weakness and sorrow, my mom was the one who showed me the face of Jesus through her unconditional love and understanding. Seven years later, I saw the same face of Jesus on the face of my husband, a husband with a forgiving heart, a gentle spirit and a love that I still don’t quite understand. Now, my love story is a fight. A fight to remain in Him…a fight to remain in Love and a fight to remain in unity. God is faithful, and today I choose to serve him.
My own Divine love story has been one of patient persistence. There have been times when I have been unfaithful and unloving. Times when I cared more about keeping my pride than losing the lies. Times when I put others ahead of Him. But then. Then He takes me back. I repent and I get yet another do-over, another fresh start.
There is no love (period!) like God’s love for us, and without His Son Jesus I would be a complete mess. I am still a partial mess, but a fully LOVED mess!
I grew up in a family where there were many gods, gods of the kitchen, gods of properity, gods which strange names, childish gods. My childhood days were spent playing on the grounds of a temple where my father was the translator of sorts when someone went into a trance when possessed by one of the gods. I was sent to a Christian school near home as its Principal had the reputation of being a no-nonsense lady and the school had good discipline. I learnt about anther God. I thought i had a good deal. MY Oriental religion with array of gods and the God that we worshipped in English. One day I realised, I had to choose. Choose this day whom you will serve…
I decided I would accept this God from school into my life, it was a long time ago, the details are hazy.
Fast forward- I grew up, I had a career, I had kids, I got busy, too busy for church and could not find that that suited me, I drifted. I still considered myself a Christian, prayed regularly. That was not enough for God. I was sent half way round the world. I stopped working, I had time! Somehow, I knew inside, despite all the apparent reasons for the family’s relocation. The real one was – to get me back to church. Somehow, He got that message into my head, there were no bright lights, no crisis, no vision. I just knew. I went to church, slowly brought my kids, against my normal instincts – I joined the Women’s Bible Study group. Back then I frowned upon Women groups, always thought that it would be gossipy etc. How wrong I was, it was humbling, it was exhilarating.
IN short, my God took the effort to bring me halfway around the world, took away my career, familiar ground just to get my attentiion and then placed me with a group of folks who showed me what it meant to love and be loved by God. When I feel unimportant, unappreciated, I remember and my heart rejoices. I am loved by the KING. May I never forget!
By the way, I am back home, attending and serving in church. God is GOOD, all the time!
During the year following the death of my husband, I realized something that bothered me a great deal. I think I probably always knew this, but would have never admitted it to anyone — even myself — and that is that my husband was the center of my life. My life revolved around him and I depended on him for everything. At only a few months after his death I was so looking for another man to make me happy again, I thought. I can see now that because I lost the center of my life is the reason why I think I felt like I had to replace it with someone/something else. But it is God who belongs there — not a person or thing. If God had been the center of my life, like He should have been, I would not have felt so lost. The center of my life died. God, on the other hand, never will and He will never let me down. I needed to ask God’s forgiveness and I’ve learned that He is all that I really need.
I am so glad that the man who I thought was interested in me last February wasn’t. He’s still just a friend. If he had been, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I’ve become so much closer to God and love Him more than I ever have. I’m so thankful that, instead, I came to a place where I was totally dependant on God — and I think that’s exactly where God wanted me.
God is so patient. I’m so glad He waited for me.
There is nothing quite like a love story! How awesome He is to draw us to Him in the best way WE need to be drawn.
When I was 16 my single Mom basically told me I could go to church with her or get out–I was on the cusp of getting into some REAL trouble on the streets of Brooklyn, NY. I thought “Hmmm, church vs. homeless?” A no brainer choice that would change my life forever! He revealed Himself to me and I gave my heart and life to Him. There have been so many trials and struggles–like everyone else in the world. And also like everyone else in the world, HE had a most magnificent plan to reveal to me—even ME! No one suffers or goes through hard times without a reason-a motive from an all loving God who knows what we need to experience as individuals in order to gain more faith and trust in Him. Certainly, I would never choose some of those times, but HE did! After spending so many years trying to earn His love, He so gently showed me that *I* simply cannot *do* anything to earn that love. It is free for the asking. He showed me grace upon grace…upon grace! I am humbled by the thought that He would do that for me.
I love Encouraging Word—it is a place to read many testimonies of His faithfulness to a world that can be so unfaithful to Him. What a mighty God we serve!
I’ve been telling my story in a series of posts this past week about how RESISTANT I was. God can overcome ANY obstacle. Enjoyed your early finding, your running and His patient pursuit!
The first time I heard the phrase, “God woos us” I must admit I thought I’d misunderstood. The God I knew sat on a throne and looked over my life in judgement, always the stern father picking out my faults and sins. Oh how a relationship changes when you find out you are loved and cherished…just because.
God is so good! His patience is beyond finding out! Isn’t it amazing that we can go through life thinking that there is someone better out there? Especially when we already know who the default option is. “Lord, I choose you today! I want to be connected to you on an emotional level. Please stay with me all day today and make me aware of your presence. I love you! Amen.”
I’m loving your love stories, ladies! (: Thanks so much for sharing these with us…
My love story began when I read the book of John in eight grade, however I had many questions that went unanswered. So I lived as I wanted to. Than a change in my life brought me to live on an island for a few months, while walking the coastline one day heard a sigh almost a cry and my name. The whisper was come sit with me, so I did and I can honestly say. My life has never been the same, He wooed me by the beauty of the mountains and water and whales. He held me up when my world came tumbling down, he brought the most wonderful man in the world into my life. I am blessed to be married these last 20 years to my best friend. We have three wonderful children here with us which we home school, the oldest graduates in the spring. A daughter waits for us with Jesus, the reunion will be wonderful. I want to live my life here on earth as God wants me to and at the same time I’m anxious to see God face to face, I love Him more than life itself, and that sustains me
My divine love story is all about HIS love, and His constant pursual of a heart that loves him so weakly.
My divine love story started… well, it has been going on forever, I guess. But God made me aware of it eventually, of how He was wooing me.
I became aware of my role in the love story when I entered college and found everything that was precious to me at the time, stripped away. It was anything that would interfere in my coming to know Jesus in a personal way.
Through a group of kids at the university, through music, and through observing their prayers and their relationships with God and each other, I was a witness to His love for them… and the slow realization that He had that same love for me.
I haven’t been the same since!
Praise God!
Heather
My love story involves God persueing me and slowly showing me what love is, and how to love others in return… both my husband and the people I meet at as we journey through life.
My divine love story started when I was 12 and although my love ebbed and flowed for 20 years His love never ebbed, it always flowed. Flowed into the heart of a girl, into the heart of a teen, the heart of a young single woman, the heart of a wife and then the heart of a mom.
My love for Christ blossomed for keeps when I began my 30’s and may it never ebb, ever again.
Thankful to be loved.
Right now, I’m struggling because of human love, and the only thing getting me through it is God’s love. He’s still working to show me until I am satisfied exclusively with Him, I won’t be able to experience the kind of love He has planned for me.
I’ll be back later.. with my divine lost story. Thanks for sharing yours, Holley!
My love story with the King of Kings, started when I was 7 or so…I just fell head of heels with Him, who healed the blind, made the lame – walk, sent me special lightening bugs, made the Heaven and Earth, and just allowed me to ramble on and on – even past my bedtime.
Years later, I’m still in love. I now trust Him with other things, like my children and family. I’m so thankful for a God who cares and loves me no matter what – even when I fail on a daily basis, with the small things.
He’s still working on me – but in a tender loving way! I know He loves me and I love Him!
As I began to read this, I actually rolled my eyes and felt the sting of jealousy, thinking
it’s all about Jesus!!!!! His Love is awesome and i can’t live without HIm. He ordained divine rendes vous in His perfect time, and waited for me 36 years to say to Him: yes! and from that moment He is everything to me and it’s wonder to me what He has done and stil doing and will do of me, because today i’m better wife, mum, ….woman – that’s what His love meaning to me. i’m His and don’t want to change anything in this love story – because He paid all costs with His life and gave me His life to live. Hallelujah!
My divine love story has to do with discovering that I was a Daddy’s girl. After feeling rejected by my father and looking for love all of my life, I finally discovered that there was only one person who could fill the deep need in my life for love. His name was God. I was His child…I was a Daddy’s girl.
I posted about this on my blog but am not sure if I did it right to make it link to here. I’m new at this and I’ve never done that. I put this website in where it said to make your title link to a website. Is that what I was supposed to do? I can’t find this site showing up anywhere to show that it linked.
My Divine love story intertwines with finding love here on Earth.
The McLinky said it was closed, so here’s the link to my story:
http://phillipsphamilyphive.blogspot.com/2008/08/chair.html
My story is really that of love at first sight.. I was in my late 20s watching as my friends moved into long term relationships and I was alone.. BUT, I had a good job, money, a nice apartment, a new car, great friends and a supportive family. Nonetheless something was missing – I longed to be a wife and a mother. I met my husband at a wedding of mutual friends – and it was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. I JUST k.n.e.w. it! We’ve been together 8 years tomorrow and it’s been a wonderful, incredible ride. I can’t wait to see what the next 8 years will bring! :o)
Holley,
Thank you so, so much for sharing your story of love… it was beautiful!!!
Oh, I could see a precious picture in my head when I read it… like a treasure. What joy! May your marriage be strengthened and blessed. : )
~Joanna
My love story started when I was 12 years old. I met this “guy” in at a revival class with a missionary who had the “Red Ant Club”. He became the love of my life. I wasn’t always the best of friends and ultimately walked away from the best relationship of my life. Fortunately, after the birth of my son and later going through a divorce, I realized that He was the BEST thing that had ever happened to me. Today, He is the most important “person” in my life. We have daily conversations that help me get through the tough parts of my life. He is ALWAYS there for me. Thank goodness He is loving AND forgiving…
what?????
When I was 19 I fell in love with the nails.
Sounds awfully strange, doesn’t it? Especially for a 19-year-old girl. But I couldn’t stop myself. I would often accompany my father to the hardware store, where he would buy lumber and drywall and whatever other little mechanical knick-knacks for his renovating projects that I never paid attention to. Except for the aisle with the nails. I would wander off while he delegated measurements in his head, drifting back to that same little spot where I found nails as long as my hands, wrist to fingertip. I wanted to buy them so badly, but I never had the spare change to do so. I longed to keep them safe in my backpack and wrap them in a silk handkerchief, pull them out whenever I couldn’t stand it anymore and needed to feel His physical presence with me, like a heart-shaped locket with a lover’s photo, as if He had gone off to war. But instead, I was the one who went off to war, leaving Him at His Throne, wavering back and forth in His love while I grew, matured, and tried to find my way back to Him when the world spun me too fast. I can still remember the days and nights I spent, feeling strangely close to the Christian mystics of centuries past, staring for hours at the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa by Lorenzo Bernini, thinking to myself, surely I am not the only one in the world who cannot stand to be without Him.
My youthful love for Him is still so greatly treasured in my heart, no matter how many years pass, no matter how many children I have, no matter how aged I become.
And I still walk through the hardware store from time to time.
Isn’t our God wonderful! My love story began when He captured my little girl-heart with the pristine woodland stream meandering past the church window. I realized His strength with the pounding of foam-capped waves crashing onto jagged rocks. I learned of His compassion in the curious paws of an abandoned baby squirrel. He taught me about His unconditional love when I heard His faithful whisper in the dark turbulence of fear and lost innocence. He is all I need. He is much, much more than enough. He is the King of my heart. Thank you dear Jesus.
My love story started when I was born…I just didn’t stop running from it until I was 28. Thank you, Lord, for continuing to pursue me.
I did write a post, but the McLinky was closed…it is here: http://wp.me/pIFMV-1w
I was 18 and I was looking for love in all the wrong places…BUT, GOD called my name when I had a nervous breakdown…my love story is on my web site if you want to read about it…
Even though I left, HE never did. The time I ventured out to live life my way, my Love was there watching. My adventure of the terrible kind. One that lasted longer than expected, but delivered me back to my first Love. It started, when I released. The clutch of my grip no longer able to clench. His Hands waiting to fill my now empty ones.
When all else faded back, I saw Him. Lost in ‘my way’, it had distanced us. His face hidden among all things I placed between us. Now gone. There He was, is. Sweeter than before in rediscovering my lost Love. His love always there, even when mine wasn’t. It took layers of life to peel back the beating heart of Love. I looked and I caved.
My submitting (that
MckLinky won’t let me add my link, so I’ll do it here.
I’m so thankful for a Love that has gone to the ends of the earth to find me: http://elainaavalos.blogspot.com/2010/02/he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not-he-loves-me.html
It’s hard for me to categorize my relationship with God as a love story. I think it’s because He’s always been there. I don’t remember the first time I asked Him into my heart, but I know I did it multiple times before I realized that once was enough. Just as in a marriage, when things become familiar and taken for granted, I sense that my relationship with God can fall to the wayside…that I neglect Him, get distracted and forget how special it is to be loved by the Creator of the Universe. I posted a blog post above where I wrote about the realization of this…where God showed me just how much I let everyday life keep me from connecting with Him. Thanks for sharing this Holley! This was a beautiful post and reminded me of the romance that God has in mind for us…
I grew up in a family where the love of God was evident. My parents told me of a wonderful Savior from the day I was born. It was only natural that I would love Him too. I easily believed early on. But it was only in middle school when that love took a deeper root. Through a series of events, I lost my best friends, which was complete devastation for a pre-teen girl. I remember crying on my bed, feeling lost and alone, when God spoke to me and reminded me that He was the only friend I ever really needed. At that point I clung to Him like never before. I asked Him to always be that number one friend, that number one love in my life.
And he has been. He’s taken me through some seasons of life where I’ve had many people to love and dote on, and then, at other times, He’s held me through lonely times where I’ve been reminded that He is my one true Friend, Savior, Lord, and Love.
He’s taught me that while humans fail, His love will never fail.
Ya know… I have to make a confession… I thought this was a love story between you and your husband! Oh my, it took my sister’s wisdom to reveal the mistake, how silly! Now that I know it is of your love story with our Lord… I’m all set! ; ) I guess I could post mine now… : )
sure that a picture paints a thousand words..love this.