Rachel was playing princess dressed in full princess attire.   She asked her brother Ben to kneel down and propose marriage which, surprisingly, he did.  She turned him down cold.  When I asked her why she did that she replied that she is waiting for a "real" prince.

Weren't we all?

Little girls pretend they are part of the fairy tale.  They want the dashing young man to come and take them away on his white charger and make promises of living happily ever after.  

Instead, they get married.

At first, the man seemed most prince-like.  And certainly handsome.  Happily ever after got buried in a never-ending list of things that are always on the "to do" list and seldom made it to the "done" list.   Errands to run, bills to pay, and let's not forget earning a paycheck.

Oh, they're happy, to be sure.  But it's not the life of bliss the story books foretell.    "Happily ever after" isn't happening like it does in the movies.  Add that  to the fact that her first love shattered her heart... and no one seemed like Mr. Right ... and life just wasn't working out like she planned.

Too many tears and not enough of that enthralling, captivating love she has always dreamed of finding.  Her heart is looking for the love that will sweep her off her feet.    

It's why she watches royal weddings on television.  A real, live, fairy tale happening while she watches.  An ordinary person becomes a princess. 

It's why women watch "Chick Flicks."  We want to be that woman who inspires men to be a better version of themselves.  To have a man utter the words "you're lovely" no matter how we look at the time.

We believe in our hearts the love story exists.

We want to become the person we were designed to be by the Chief Designer.   

No one understands the woman's heart like the One who created it.  And He calls to us all today whispering "I have loved you with an everlasting love."  (Jeremiah 31:3.)

And the woman hears her Creator speak softly to her heart.  And she is totally taken in by His deep, undying and unconditional love.

Is this my story?  Or is this every woman's story?   Yes.  It is.

Today (March 19) is National Poultry Day.  Well, it just doesn't get much more exciting than that.

Such a day is surely worthy of celebration.   A day to celebrate the chicken nugget.   Preschoolers everywhere should rejoice.   

But it does make you wonder... who decided March 19 should be such a day?  Apparently the Poultry lobbyists are a powerful group.

One must further inquire, why do we need a day in praise of the fowl creature? 

Why not?  We are culture that seems to make a big deal out of almost everything.  It doesn't even really matter what we're celebrating.  We love to celebrate. 

There are days in honor of peanut butter, chocolate, the cupcake, and salted nut day, chips and dip day, and chocolate covered raisin day.  Those I can understand.

But Tuesday is Festival Of Extraterrestrial Abductions Day.  Really?  We need a day for that?

What if we had a day that was really worth celebrating?  And it could happen every day... Psalm 118:24  This is the day which the Lord has made; we will be full of joy and delight in it.

To delight in today just because we can.  He made a day full of blessings in store for us.  A day rich in promise and delight.  We are told to find joy in it.  

Not happiness.  Joy.  

Happiness depends upon our circumstances.  We get a speeding ticket, or get some bad news... not too likely to be happy.  Probably more likely to be sad or tearful instead of happy.  

But joy doesn't depend on circumstances.  Joy is much deeper than that.  It is based on knowing who is in charge of the day, not what happens in it.  

Delight in the day... God gave it to you to enjoy.  To flourish.  And to celebrate His goodness and love.

Nuggets for everyone.






 

There is a commercial on television right now that totally explains how my life with Ray began.

A man proposes to his girlfriend and while they're hugging, post-question-popping, she is looking around at the room full of his stuff.  Apparently she is imagining her life without his stuff around.

That's kind of how our life together started.  When we moved from his place and my place at mom's house into the same house, all of my stuff made the move safely.  Most of his didn't make the move at all.  I have no idea what happened to his things.  They just... vanished.

Ok, I better 'fess up here before God tells me I've been lying.  I know where Ray's stuff went.  I believe we call it...   Landfill.  (Don't judge me.  This was before the day and age of resale shops.)

Why?  Oh, don't ask why.   His sense of, oh let's call it... style... and mine were worlds apart.  I went through his belongings one by one and cleaned up what was no longer necessary.

He didn't see it coming.  

He still doesn't.  When I clean the basement/closet/garage and some of Ray's stuff doesn't make the reorganizing, I always tell him if he can name anything that is missing, I will gladly retrieve it before the garbage truck comes in a day or two.  He has yet, in 33 years of marriage, been able to name one things that has ... oh let's call it ... vanished.  But he's all the better for it.

How in the world am I going to get a spiritual application out of all this nonsense?  Who cares about whether Ray's stuff made it in the move or not?

Stay with me....

God is wooing us into a relationship with Him.  He's a gentlemen.  He never barges in where He's not welcome.

But oh... when we open the door to His presence... He will most certainly enter in.  He will come to a place of relationship with us.  He will love us.     And things get cleaned up.  In us.

When Ray and I got married, he came into our marriage with a mindset of what was still to come.  His stuff didn't make it.  His clutter got cleaned up and he never missed it.

When we come into the relationship with Jesus that is based on love... His for us... we will enter into it never realizing how the things we have with us is no longer necessary.

He gets rid of the unnecessary baggage.   He gets rid of the things in our lives that are useless to us.  One by one.   We never notice it's gone.

The relationship is based on love.  Not on the stuff we brought with us.

And we're all the better for it.

I just heard my dad say something to me.  Well, just in my mind.  Yet, it was my dad's voice just the same.

My granddaughter and I just finished our poptart baking experience and she asked me what I thought of them.  I told her "I love them."   My father's voice immediately popped into my head and said "You can't love something that can't love you back."   Yep, I know that. 

We use the word "love" far too freely.  We love our spouse, our kids, our grandchildren.  That's great.  But then we also love cheesecake, Snickers tm candy bars, and that new pair of shoes.  Do we love our cheesecake as much as our kids?  The correct answer is "no." 

So how are people to know what we really love and what we just like a whole lot?  Perhaps just lust over?  Obsess over?  We have forgotten what love really means. 

Love, according to the bible, is something that would cause us to lay down our life for someone else.  Would I lay down my life for any one of my three grandkids?  Without hesitation.   For my kids or their spouses?  Absolutely.  Would I risk my life for cheesecake lying in the middle of the street about to be run over by a semi?   Probably not.  (Is it a homemade cheesecake or from a box?)  

How about the guy across the street?  I don't even know his name.  Well, I would certainly yell for him to get out of the way.  But I don't love that nameless guy.  I'm not about to jump into traffic on his behalf.

And certainly not for a Snickers bar. 

Now we're back to how we use the word "love."  Love needs to be saved for those who have the ability to love us back.  I always thought you could say that about a beloved pet, but my dad insisted you could not.  He says they couldn't love back because love involves the body, soul and spirit of a person.  When you love, you love completely and without reservation.  Love that makes you not even think twice to do something for another.   Love has to be an action, not just words.
 
Do you have to actually die to lay down your life?  Nope. 

It means you put their needs, their dreams, their hopes ahead of your own.  You meet the needs of those you care about instead of doing what you wish you could do (which is sit down.)  There is no greater love.

Little catch here -- you have to do it without complaining.

Jesus did just that.  He laid down His life on the cross of Golgatha.  He took all of the sin of the entire world from the beginning until its ultimate end and He did it without complaining.  No whimper.  Just a sigh as His life left Him.

Would I die for you today?  No, unless you're my family and happen to be reading this.   But Jesus did.  For you.

Because there is no greater love.

John 15:13 - There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. 

Last night I was working in the Children's Ministry room while an adult Bible study was going on in the fellowship hall.  I had the television on to watch old Veggie Tales videos as the kids were tired of playing and just wanted to rest a bit.  It was late.  They were tired.

One of the children wanted to watch "Larry Boy" so I found the video tape, that's right, I said tape, as in VHS.  I popped it into the video player, but alas, the tape had not be rewound by the last viewer.  Probably in 1999. 

One of the little boys became quite impatient waiting for the video tape to rewind.  He wanted to watch.  He wanted to watch now.  DVDs have taught our kids we just push a button and the magic of television comes to life.  Videos make us wait. 

The four-year old boy doesn't understand videos.  I don't know if he thought I didn't know what I was doing.... what on earth was taking so long?  He wanted to watch and he let me know as only a young child can (by saying it over and over and over) that he didn't want to wait.  Watch Larry Boy, watch Larry Boy....

I get it.  You want to watch Larry Boy.  

Finally, after what seemed to be a good twenty minutes, the video had rewound and we were able to push the play button.  The television screen was fuzzy for a moment, but finally the Veggie Tales theme song came to life.  The boys danced and sang along.  All was well with the world.  The boys and I were all thankful the tape was ready to play.

Change.  The world of videos has long gone except for the few homes which still have a video player.  In our home we have videos which tout the advent of movies coming in the summer of 1995.  Movies I have long forgotten are still in promo trailers on these relics.  I also have a DVD player and two blue-rays at home.... because they're just better than a VHS player.  And VHS tapes are a little hard to come by lately.

Time marches on.  Things change.   

But not everything changes.   God is the same today as He was thousands of years ago.  His faithfulness, His caring, His love and protection... all exactly the same as they were at the time of Moses.  Abraham.   Adam and Eve. 

His rules haven't changed much either.  Love God the most and love everyone else the way you love yourself.   Loosely paraphrased. 

Although I appreciate change with the advancement of things like Blue-Ray over VHS, I also love the fact that God's love for me never changes.  I cannot do anything that would keep Him from loving me.  It's impossible.  No matter how impatient I become, or how I might tend to ignore Him because I'm swamped at home.... He remains the same. 

I can do absolutely nothing that will put me outside of His ability to love, care and guide me. 

There's a lot of comfort found in that.  He is unchangeable.  And not only that, God is unable to change.  His love never ceases.  His mercy endures from generaton to generation.  His faithfulness... the same yesterday, today and always. 

And for that I am very thankful. 

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
  heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17. 

Life is not a fairy tale. 

Now that may come as a surprise to some of you.  No Prince Charming on a white charger.  No damsel in distress.  And the reality is no matter what Disney tries to tell you.... no one always has a good hair day.  Especially under water.

But I digress.

In fairy tales, there is always a beautiful princess in some sort of distress.  She finds herself in harm's way.  Or half dead.  And she needs her prince to save her.  He bounds into the room after battling the dragon/witch/evil something and kneels down before her bedside/glass coffin and gives her loves first kiss.  She awakens and then they are happily married for who knows how long.  She becomes more beautiful as the wife of a prince.  No longer in rags.  No longer shabby.

Princes and Princesses aren't much for dating.

His kiss is all the wooing she needs.  After all, he's hot.  And... let's face it...he's a prince.  There just aren't that many princes to go around.

But don't women love to be wooed?  We want someone to come and "fix" the heart that has been broken too many times.   We want the perfect man to awaken us from the slumber into which our emotions have fallen because we're sure there is no such thing as perfect love.  Our hearts ache for the affirmation that we are loved.

And He's there.  Waiting.  Unlike the princes in our fairy tales, this Prince never barges in without an invitation.  That invitation has been written on our hearts.  An invitation to be wooed away to a life of romance by the One who holds you as His most precious treasure.

Not a fairy tale, but a real romance of Someone who loves you more than He loved His own life.   By Someone who one day wants to take you home to meet His Father. 

Jesus is calling you to be the beautiful princess... to cultivate the beauty that is within you and to show that beauty to others.  As a prince shows off his princess. 

He is calling to bring you to a place of deep, intimate relationship with Him.  To know Him in a way that develops the beauty within you.   The relationship that can only grow with time spent together.

Jesus' salvation for His beloved is the beginning of a beautiful relationship of love, inspiration, dedication and honor.   To give you the affirmation of His love.

Your Prince awaits.  What is your response?  

Song of Songs 2:10 "My Love spoke and said to me, 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with Me.'"